Putrid Meat and Fish in the Eurasian Middle and Upper Paleolithic: Are We Missing a Key Part of Neanderthal and Modern Human Diet?

Home , Fermented fish, Hypoderma tarandi, Mashuna, Seal meat

JOHN D. SPETH Department of Anthropology, 101 West Hall, 1085 South University Avenue, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1107, USA; [email protected] submitted: 21 February 2017; revised 2 April 2017; accepted 4 April 2017

ABSTRACT This paper begins by exploring the role of fermented and deliberately rotted (putrefied) meat, fish, and fat in the diet of modern hunters and gatherers throughout the arctic and subarctic. These practices partially ‘pre-digest’ the high protein and fat content typical of northern forager diets without the need for cooking, and hence without the need for fire or scarce fuel. Because of the peculiar properties of many bacteria, including various lactic acid bacteria (LAB) which rapidly colonize decomposing meat and fish, these foods can be preserved free of pathogens for weeks or even months and remain safe to eat. In addition, aerobic bacteria in the early stages of putrefaction deplete the supply of oxygen in the tissues, creating an anaerobic environment that retards the production of potentially toxic byproducts of lipid autoxidation (rancidity). Moreover, LAB produce B-vitamins, and the anaerobic environment favors the preservation of vitamin C, a critical but scarce micronutrient in heavily meat-based northern diets. If such foods are cooked, vitamin C may be depleted or lost entirely, increasing the threat of scurvy. Psy- chological studies indicate that the widespread revulsion shown by many Euroamericans to the sight and smell of putrefied meat is not a universal hard-wired response, but a culturally learned reaction that does not emerge in young children until the age of about five or later, too late to protect the infant from pathogens during the highly vulnerable immediate-post-weaning period. Ethnohistoric and ethnographic evidence clearly show that putrefied meat and fish were not used solely as starvation foods, but served instead as ubiquitous, desirable, and nutritionally important components of forager diets throughout these northern environments. In the second part of the paper, I extend these arguments to suggest that putrefied meat, fish, and fat are likely to have been equally important to the lifeways and adaptations of Eurasian Paleolithic hominins inhabiting analogous environments. If such food practices were in fact widespread during the mid- to late Pleistocene, they may help account for aspects of the archaeological record that are presently difficult to comprehend, such as the ‘on again, off again’ evidence for fire use (and hence cooking) during the Eurasian Middle Paleolithic. Putrefaction also may alter the isotopic composition of the diet. As meat and fish decompose, a variety of volatile compounds are produced, including ammonia.

Loss of NH3, along with lesser amounts of two other nitrogenous gases—cadaverine and putrescine—would very likely leave rotted meat and fish enriched in15 N by comparison to the isotopic composition of these foods in their fresh state. Such enrichment may have contributed to the elevated values seen in many Neanderthals, values that are widely taken as prima facie evidence of Neanderthal’s status as a ‘top predator.’ Finally, if Paleolithic foragers relied upon putrefaction to prepare and store meat, archaeologists may have to rethink the way they interpret a number of widely used taphonomic signatures, including the number and distribution of cutmarks, the extent of carnivore damage, the incidence of burning on both animal bones and stone tools, and the frequency and scale of hearths, ash lenses, and other features of combustion.

INTRODUCTION y nature most Paleolithic archaeologists—myself in- cluded—are empiricists. We want facts and, under- “When we fix salmon head we put it in bucket in ground and B we take it out and eat it. We leave it in ten days only because standably, we build our interpretations closely around it will spoil in summer.... Stinkfish, oooh, I love that stinkfish. them. After all, what good are interpretations in archaeol- Smell funny, but it sure taste good....“ (Mary Tyone, quoted ogy if their aim is to account for domains of behavior in in Godduhn and Kostick 2016: 30) the past that we cannot ‘see’ in the material record? With- out the facts, we may be doing little more than weaving fanciful stories out of whole cloth—creating archaeological ‘fairy tales’ or ‘just-so’ stories.

PaleoAnthropology 2017: 44−72. © 2017 PaleoAnthropology Society. All rights reserved. ISSN 1545-0031 doi:10.4207/PA.2017.ART105 Putrid Meat and Fish in the Paleolithic • 45 On the other hand, there are a number of behavioral tundras, arctic steppes, and boreal forests that are, or were, domains that for all practical purposes remain archaeologi- home to northern foragers of the ‘ethnographic present.’ cally invisible, or at least frustratingly intractable, despite More to the point, these are precisely the kinds of environ- the fact that we know they are present, even universal, ments in which modern foragers routinely relied on fer- among modern foragers. Gender provides a classic case mented and deliberately rotted meat, fish, fat, fish roe, and in point. Gender distinctions are central to hunting and stomach contents. In fact, many explorers, ethnographers, gathering societies across the globe and play a fundamen- ethnohistorians, and nutritionists over the years have con- tal role in the daily lives of these peoples (e.g., Brumbach cluded that life in northern environments might not have and Jarvenpa 2006; Frink 2009). They must therefore have been possible without frequent recourse to fermented ani- a prehistory, one that very likely extends well back into the mal foods (Kozlov and Zdor 2003: 129). So, is it not likely, Paleolithic. But we remain all but helpless when it comes or at least plausible, that Neanderthals, and perhaps even to ‘seeing’ gender in the Paleolithic record, where stone their predecessors, as well as Upper Paleolithic foragers, tools are just about the only artifacts with which we have might have done likewise? to work. Given the male-centric biases that we standardly bring to lithic studies, coupled with the inadequacies of the WHY DOES IT MATTER TO PALEOLITHIC methods at our disposal and the almost total lack of suit- ARCHAEOLOGISTS? able middle range theory (Gero 1991), we are compelled There is much more at stake in the answer to this question to pay little more than lip service to the issue. As- acon than merely adding some offensive smelling oddities to the sequence, there is considerable risk that a portion—quite culinary repertoire of our Pleistocene forebears. For reasons likely a substantial portion—of the variability that we are to be discussed shortly, if fermentation of the type seen his- trying to explain in Paleolithic stone tool assemblages de- torically in the northern latitudes was also practiced as an rives from gendered behavior, not from the usual list of alternative to cooking on a more-than-occasional basis by Eur- ‘suspects’ to which we almost invariably turn (e.g., differ- asian Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic hominins, we ences in raw material, site function, cultural tradition). may have to modify, in some cases quite radically, the way Unlike gender distinctions, which most Paleolithic ar- we go about reconstructing many aspects of their behav- chaeologists are at least well aware of, there are potentially ior and lifeways, including, among others: (1) estimating important domains of past behavior that are not only ar- the metabolic costs of digesting and assimilating the large chaeologically invisible, but have almost never received amounts of protein in a heavily meat-based diet (Churchill even so much as lip service. One such domain—the focus 2014: 325; Speth and Spielmann 1983); (2) accounting for the of the present endeavor—concerns the use of deliberately on-again, off-again evidence for fire (and hence cooking) fermented (often literally rotted or putrefied) meat, fish, fat, in the European Middle Paleolithic, and in particular the and stomach contents. Ubiquitous today and in the recent seemingly counterintuitive decline in the incidence of fire past in the foodways of foragers throughout the circum- use (in at least some sites) during colder climatic episodes polar regions (Yamin-Pasternak et al. 2014), and important (Sandgathe et al. 2011; see also Sorensen 2017); (3) broaden- even well beyond the northern latitudes (Audubon 1897: ing our view of the potential range of hominin food preser- 496–497; Barnes et al. 1973; Buck et al. 2016; Budack 1977; vation and storage capabilities and consequent patterns of Cawthorn 1997; Coues 1897: 356–357; Darwin 1860: 213– site occupancy and mobility; (4) assessing what impact, if 214; Dirar 1992; Dornan 1925: 115; Ealy 1880: 134–135; Grey any, the repeated consumption of millions upon millions of 1841: 276–278; Griffiths 1975; Johnston 1908: 627; Kelsey bacteria and their complex metabolites, together with the 1997: 204; Marlowe 2004a: 191; Newcomb 1961: 41; Oye- normal postmortem biochemical products of endogenous wole 1997; Selous 1881: 436; Winship 1896: 528), fermented muscle and lipid decomposition, might have had on the and rotted animal foods are—or at least were until quite carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values of Neanderthals recently—key dietary staples that were absolutely vital to and Upper Paleolithic peoples (Bocherens 2011; Richards the viability and success of these northern foraging groups. and Trinkaus 2009); and, (5) developing taphonomic sig- An admittedly cursory scan of the literature using natures that take into account the impact that non-thermal Google Scholar revealed a smattering of articles over the fermentation and putrefaction are likely to have had on years which briefly mention—usually in just a sentence or signs of anthropogenic involvement in assemblage forma- two—the possibility that Paleolithic foragers might have tion (e.g., the frequency of charred bones, the abundance eaten fermented foods, most notably the stomach contents and anatomical distribution of cutmarks), the survivorship of certain ungulates and birds. However, as far as I have of fish bones and other fragile faunal remains, and the ex- been able to determine only two of these papers, both very tent to which discarded bones from deliberately ferment- recent ones, actually made this possibility a central focus ed or rotted carcasses would have remained attractive to of their study (Buck and Stringer 2014; Buck et al. 2016). predators and scavengers. Fermentation may be like gen- The near universal silence on this topic is curious given der—frustratingly intractable yet fundamentally important that Eurasian Neanderthals and their Upper Paleolithic to our understanding of the behavior and adaptations of successors occupied habitats not all that different from the our Pleistocene ancestors. 46 • PaleoAnthropology 2017

FERMENTATION AS A ‘LOW-TECH’ looper’ Bushmen) along the Namibian and South African ALTERNATIVE TO COOKING coast scavenging meat and blubber from stranded whales There are a number of reasons why fermented and rotted and storing it in pits along the shore for later use (Budack foods would be important to peoples, whether Paleolithic 1977; Raven Hart 1971; see also Cawthorn 1997 for similar or more recent, living under arctic and subarctic condi- practices among Maori of New Zealand and Darwin 1860: tions. First and foremost, fermentation (including more 213–214 for comparable treatment of beached whales in advanced states of putrefaction) of meat and fish accom- the high-latitude environments of Tierra del Fuego). A Na- plishes outside of the body much of what would normally tive American war party taking a group of captives from happen to these foods in their unfermented state inside the farms in western Pennsylvania to the Niagara frontier area body after one has ingested them (Kozlov and Zdor 2003). in western New York in 1780 apparently did not hesitate to In other words, in many respects fermentation, through the eat a putrid and maggot-infested deer (or elk) they killed combined postmortem proteolytic effects of endogenous en route (Walton 1790: 103–104). And as Frank Marlowe enzymes in the carcass and the products of both endoge- (2004b: 84) notes, even the well-known Hadza in Tanzania nous and exogenous microbial action, becomes a powerful were not averse to utilizing putrid meat: ‘...the Hadza often and low-cost way of pre-digesting both meat and fish, soft- eat very rotten, week-old meat they scavenge from carni- ening them significantly and breaking down the proteins vores.’ into peptides and amino acids (Fadda et al. 2002; Forbes The preservative effects of LAB fermentation also are et al. 2017; Ordóñez and de la Hoz 2007; Petäjä-Kanninen invaluable in preventing fats from becoming rancid. For and Puolanne 2007). The same endogenous and exogenous arctic and subarctic peoples subsisting on diets that were processes also contribute to the breakdown or lipolysis of composed almost entirely of animal foods, the large quanti- fats in the food, liberating a range of nutritionally valuable ties of fatty meat and fish that such a diet demands can be free fatty acids (e.g., Forbes et al. 2017; Vasundhara et al. very difficult to dry quickly enough and thoroughly enough 1983). In essence, fermentation (and more advanced stages to prevent the lipids, most especially the long-chain poly- of putrefaction) produce many of the same benefits that unsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA’s), from turning rancid cooking does, but without the need for fire or fuel (Wrangham and spoiling (see the discussion in Romanoff 1992). Such 2009; Wrangham and Conklin-Brittain 2003; see Urquhart spoilage can actually pose a health risk by giving rise to a 1935: 195 for an early recognition of these metabolic bene- number of undesirable and potentially toxic substances in fits). And, though admittedly speculative, I suspect that the the meat or fish. The most important of these are a class of more advanced the stage of fermentation or putrefaction, compounds known as hydroperoxides, unstable oxidation the greater the energetic benefits to the consumer. products that can undergo further breakdown, forming a Moreover, lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which play a key variety of carbonyl group compounds such as aldehydes role in the fermentation process, produce a wide range of and ketones (Kubow 1990; St. Angelo 1992). These same enzymes, toxins, and other metabolites that inhibit inva- processes can also lead to destruction of important vita- sion by unwanted pathogens such as Clostridium botulinum, mins in the fish or meat, particularly vitamin C, but also the agent that causes botulism, and many others (Alakomi vitamins A and E (Flick et al. 1992: 184). et al. 2000; Axelsson 2004; Caplice and Fitzgerald 1999; de Fermentation provides an effective means of inhibit- Moreno de LeBlanc et al. 2015; Fadda et al. 2002; Farouk et ing the ‘autoxidation’ of the lipids that leads to rancidity. al. 2014; Holzapfel and Wood 2014; Liu et al. 2014; Ray and When decomposition first begins, the microflora in the Joshi 2015; Riley and Chavan 2007; Ross et al. 2002; Singh carcass at the time of death is predominantly composed of et al. 2012; Stadnik and Kęska 2015). The ability of LAB to aerobic taxa. These bacteria deplete the available oxygen, block the proliferation of pathogens provides arctic and rapidly transforming the aerobic environment in the car- subarctic foragers with an extremely effective ‘low-tech’ cass (and meat) toward one favoring fermentative anaero- way of preserving and storing meat and fat for months— bic taxa (Finley et al. 2015: 628; Forbes and Carter 2016: 19; even through the warmer months of the year—in environ- Hyde et al. 2013: 7). For the very same reason, fermentation ments where the weather often was too damp and rainy to may be one of the most effective ways to preserve and store dry these foods effectively, and especially in environmen- the lipid-rich brains of both fish and mammals, because the tal contexts where fuel shortages may have precluded the two principal LCPUFA’s in brain, docosahexaenoic acid routine use of fire to speed up the drying process. The food (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA), are very unstable and was often simply placed for weeks or months in pits in the quickly turn rancid, even when refrigerated. ground (Jones 2006), or under piles of rocks, or within spe- Finally, LAB fermentation creates important B-complex cially made seal-skin ‘pokes’ (Frink and Giordano 2015), or vitamins, most notably vitamin B12, riboflavin, and folate; submerged in bogs, rivers, or shallow ponds (Fisher 1995), and, by reducing or obviating the need for cooking, wheth- and later retrieved and consumed with no ill health effects. er by roasting or by boiling, and by retarding the autoxida- And while these techniques are best documented in tion of lipids, fermentation favors preservation of these and the northern latitudes, they have been noted in other ar- other vitamins that might otherwise be diminished or lost eas of the world as well. For example, 17th-century Dutch (de Moreno de LeBlanc et al. 2015). colonists observed Khoisan hunter-gatherers (‘strand- Putrid Meat and Fish in the Paleolithic • 47

VITAMIN C ers, Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Karsten Andersen, lived for Let me digress briefly here to take a closer look- specifi an entire year in New York City under close medical ob- cally at vitamin C. Early Euroamerican explorers in the servation on a diet that consisted solely of (lightly cooked) arctic were plagued by scurvy stemming from shortages beef, lamb, veal, pork, and chicken. The parts they ate in- of vitamin C, while their unacculturated Native hosts were cluded muscle, liver, kidney, brain, bone marrow, bacon, not (Fediuk et al. 2002; Stefansson 1935). The problem and fat. McClellan and DuBois (1930: 661–662), who super- often arose, not from what the Westerners were eating— vised the medical component of the experiment, found no they were often relying on the same animals as their hosts evidence of vitamin C deficiency. Stefansson (1935: 183), were—but from differences in what parts of the animals based both on the outcome of that study and on his years they ate and how they prepared the food. The outsiders of first-hand experience in the arctic, concluded that ‘...the typically preferred muscle meat over entrails and organs, human body needs only such a tiny bit of Vitamin C that if and they generally wanted it cooked (preferably roasted or you have some fresh meat in your diet every day, and don’t grilled), not raw or frozen, and cooked thoroughly, espe- overcook it, there will be enough C from that source alone cially if the meat was ‘tainted’ (as it often was on long out- to prevent scurvy.’ ings in the ‘bush’). Coastal Inuit and inland Natives, on the Similar observations were made some years earlier other hand, ate virtually every part of the animal, including by William Thomas, a medical doctor who examined tra- all of the internal organs, blood, testicles, foetus, amniotic ditional Greenland Inuit still living on a diet consisting fluid, intestines, chyme, brain, and eyes; and, they typically almost entirely of raw meat. Of particular interest are his ate these either raw (sometimes still warm straight from the comparisons between the Greenlanders and more accultur- animal, sometimes partly frozen), or fermented (in fact, of- ated Inuit living in Labrador: ‘This diet furnishes him [the ten thoroughly putrefied). Greenland Eskimo] with vitamins adequate for protection As it turns out, muscle is virtually devoid of vitamin against scurvy and rickets, while the Labrador Eskimo, C, regardless of how it is prepared, whereas many of the whose meat is cooked and whose diet includes many pre- organs and body fluids that most Western visitors found pared, dried and canned articles, is very subject to both disgusting and assiduously avoided (except when their these maladies’ (Thomas 1927: 1560; see also Urquhart expeditions were teetering on the brink of starvation) are 1935: 195). precisely the portions of the animal that have the highest In fact, awareness of the antiscorbutic benefits of tradi- vitamin C levels (especially the brain, liver, spleen, and tes- tional northern diets is evident long before the discovery of ticles, but also the thymus, pancreas, eyes (retina), adrenal vitamin C. One of the most explicit and insightful of these glands, pituitary gland, and to a lesser extent the kidneys, was by an 18th-century American M.D., John Aiken. Being heart, and lungs; see Clemens and Tóth 2016; Fediuk et al. unaware of micronutrients, he concluded that scurvy was 2002: 227, Table 1; Harrison and May 2009; Hediger 2002: not the inevitable outcome of an all-meat diet, as many of 445; Jayathilakan et al. 2012: 281; Kizlaitis et al. 1962; NUT- his contemporaries staunchly maintained, not even if the TAB 2010 Electronic Database; O’Dea 1991: 236; Pearson meat was putrid, but of the heavy use of salt as a preserva- and Gillett 1999: 42). Curiously and perhaps counterintuitive: tively, the stomach contents, at least of caribou, turn out to be a rather poor source of this important micronutrient “In a manuscript French account of the islands lying between Kamtschatka and America...I find it mentioned, (Draper 1978: 310; Fediuk 2000: 54). In any case, regardless that ‘the Russians, in their hunting voyages to these is- of whether one ate the full array of body parts and fluids lands, (an expedition generally lasting three years) in or- separately while still raw, or consumed them mixed togeth- der to save expense and room in purchasing and stowing er into a thoroughly putrefied mass, there was enough of vegetable provision, compose half their crews of natives this precious vitamin to remain healthy. of Kamtschatka, because these people are able to preserve themselves from the scurvy with animal food only, Moreover, as already demonstrated early in the 20th- by abstaining from the use of salt.’” (Aiken 1789: 346) century, one can live indefinitely on a diet containing no fruits or vegetables and no fish or other aquatic foods and “...it seems to be a fact, that several of the northern na- still obtain sufficient vitamin C to stave off any symptoms tions, whose diet is extremely putrid, (as before hinted of vitamin C deficiency or scurvy, so long as the animal with respect to the people of Kamtschatka) are able to preserve themselves from the scurvy; therefore, putrid foods that are eaten are either raw (i.e., fresh, frozen, or pu- aliments alone will not necessarily induce it.” (Aiken trefied) or only very lightly cooked (Bender 1979; Kizlaitis 1789: 347) et al. 1964). Karen Harry and Liam Frink (2009: 334) provide a clear idea of what ‘lightly cooked’ typically meant While it was known already by the mid-18th-century in high-arctic contexts where fuel was scarce: ‘Modern-day that fresh citrus fruits could both prevent and cure scur- informants report that traditional cooking techniques, still vy (Lind 1753), seafaring crews soon discovered that the preferred by many today, involve only briefly immersing concentrate made from the juice and used on long sea voy- chunks of meat into hot water and removing them as soon ages lost much of its effectiveness as it was being prepared as they have been warmed through or only lightly par- (Kodicek and Young 1969: 46). Thus, more stable alterna- boiled....’ tives to citrus were clearly needed. Not long after Lind’s In a classic year-long study, two seasoned arctic explor- discoveries, an interesting alternative was put forth by 48 • PaleoAnthropology 2017 Charles de Mertans (1778). He found that fermented cab- company, however, is at the point of consumption, diges- bage (i.e., sauerkraut) possessed an essence or substance tion, and assimilation—the costs to the forager in time and that effectively staved off scurvy and, because it was fer- calories of ingesting (chewing) and metabolizing them (i.e., mented, it could be safely stored for months aboard ships the diet-induced thermogenesis of the foods). Fermentation, without losing its antiscorbutic potency, thereby finally especially when allowed to reach the more advanced states providing sailors with welcome relief from one of the true of decomposition or putrefaction, is in many ways akin to scourges of life at sea. De Mertans’s insights played a role cooking the food. Like cooking, fermentation greatly soft- in Captain James Cook’s decision to rely heavily on sauer- ens the meat and breaks down the component proteins and kraut (‘sour-krout’) as an antiscorbutic during his long voy- fats before the food is ingested. Thus, for the high-protein ages of exploration in the Pacific, because, in Cook’s own diets so characteristic of northern environments, fermenta- words, it had ‘...the good quality not to loose any part of its tion and more advanced putrefaction may offer foragers a Efficacy by Keeping, we used the last of it in September last significant energetic benefit, while at the same time requir- after having been above two years on board & it was then ing little or no use of fire and fuel. as good as at the first’ (quoted in Kodicek and Young [1969: Inuit sled dogs provide additional insights into the 48]; see also Holzapfel et al. [2003: 348, 350, 353] for contem- potential energetic payoffs of consuming food in a partly porary information on sauerkraut’s vitamin C content; and pre-digested or putrefied state. During the winter, the sea- Lamb [2016] for an interesting overview of the discovery of son when sled dogs endure their heaviest work loads, their scurvy’s cause and ultimate cure). Stretching things a bit, average daily caloric needs are estimated to be on the or- one might say that northern foragers, when they first began der of 5,000–6,000 kcal (Gerth et al. 2010; Olesen 2014: 233; deliberately fermenting meat and fish, had come upon an Orr 1966), a staggering amount when one considers that animal equivalent to Captain Cook’s ‘sour-krout’—an eas- these energy needs, and the food that has to be procured ily prepared, long-lasting antiscorbutic that made life pos- to fulfill them, are as great as, and at times even greater sible in a cold and barren world that was largely devoid of than, the needs of their human owners (see, for example, fresh fruits and vegetables. Spencer 1959: 142). As succinctly put by Frank Vallee (1962: Indulging now in a bit of speculation, if Neanderthal 39): ‘The average [Inuit] family which had kept one or two tastes were broadly similar to what we observe cross-cul- dogs before the trapping era would likely have kept from turally among northern foragers of the ethnographic pres- three to six during that era. From the point of view of food ent, such that they had no qualms about consuming the consumption, this would be roughly equivalent to adding organs, entrails, and body fluids of the animals they pro- a few human members to each family in the region.’ To cured, and if fermentation (and putrefaction) were normal help further contextualize these figures, non-working Alas- parts of their culinary repertoire, then, despite their appar- kan Huskies (average weight 33.4kg or about 74lb), while ent very limited use of marine mammals and fish, it seems exposed to arctic winter temperatures with minimal shel- rather doubtful that they would have suffered to any sig- ter, consumed on average about 2,600 kcal per day (Durrer nificant degree from vitamin C deficiency or scurvy (contra and Hannon 1962). At the other extreme, Alaskan sled dogs Guil-Guerrero 2017). bred for racing, such as those which participate in the famous Iditarod, consume some 10,000 to 11,000 kcal per day FERMENTED VERSUS RAW MEAT AND FISH (Hinchcliff et al. 1997; Kronfeld 1973; Loftus et al. 2014). I should mention one other point before we turn to a closer Thus, under traditional conditions, and most particularly look at fermentation and putrefaction. Northern peoples in winter, sled dogs were a double-edged sword for their eat quite a bit of their meat and fish raw, sometimes frozen owners, on the one hand playing an essential role in the for- (though usually deliberately partially thawed to achieve a agers’ mobile hunting way of life, but on the other hand re- crystalline but not flaccid texture), sometimes dried (occa- quiring a huge and near constant investment of time, effort, sionally also smoked), sometimes still warm from a freshly and resources just to keep them fed (Anderson et al. 1998: killed carcass. In short, raw and fermented/putrefied foods 18; Balikci 1989: 115; 2002: 258; Ekblaw 1928: 3; Hall 1978: are not components of mutually exclusive dietary systems. 210–211; Krupnik 1993: 54; Leechman 1954: 17; Pike 1892: Quite the contrary, both are widely used across the width 55, 136; Prichard and Gathorne-Hardy 1911: 32; Rasmussen and breadth of the circumpolar regions. And they share a 1930: 15, 36; Savishinsky 1975: 474; Smith 1991: 128; Spen- number of valuable features in common. Being uncooked, cer 1959: 142; Tyrrell 1897: 25; Vallee 1962: 38–39; Whitney neither requires much if any use of scarce fuel. And being 1910: 90). As Don Dumond (1980: 41–42) put it: ‘Burdened uncooked, both preserve their precious vitamin C content. with their growing array of specialized and necessary tools, And, of course, raw meat and fish can be either dried or fro- the Eskimos were driven to invent first the umiak and then zen and stored much like their fermented counterparts, al- the dogsled, having to make payment for the latter ever af- though it would seem from ethnohistoric and ethnographic ter in extensive hunting and fishing directed only at finding descriptions that the steps needed to prepare the raw food dogfood.’ for storage, especially by drying, required a greater invest- James Urquhart (1935: 195), already in the 1930s, ob- ment of time and labor, and the outcome was subject to served what he interpreted as the metabolic boost that greater risk of spoilage from inclement weather. hard-working sled dogs might gain by consuming fish Where raw and fermented foods are most likely to part that were in a fermented or ‘high’ state rather than fresh. Putrid Meat and Fish in the Paleolithic • 49 Though far from a controlled experiment, he noticed that the point where cultural values and practices become in- dogs feeding on a diet of fresh fish lost weight, while those extricably mixed together with genuine issues of health eating fermented fish held their weight or actually gained a and safety. And this confusion is not just in the way these little. Other arctic visitors noted what may be an expression terms are used in day-to-day parlance but spills over into of the same phenomenon—sled dogs sometimes refused to the scientific literature as well. Thus, when a murder vic- eat meat, fish, or fat when it was fresh, clearly preferring tim dies and the body starts to decompose, a forensic scien- the fermented or rotted varieties (e.g., Rae 1850: 126; see tist would be likely to refer to what was happening as the also Leechman’s 1950: 132–133 amusing description of the onset of ‘putrefaction.’ In contrast, a food scientist dealing food preferences of Inuit dogs). Urquhart came to the con- with pork sausages at exactly the same stage of decomposition clusion that the behavior he observed in sled dogs stemmed would refer to the process as ‘fermentation’ (compare, for from the fact that the ‘high’ fish were already partly pre- example, Lana and Zolla 2016, and Pittner et al. 2016: 422). digested by the fermentation process, and hence could be And, counterintuitive as it may seem, even meat that is so ingested and assimilated by the dogs with less effort and at putrid that it literally reeks and is filled with maggots may less caloric cost than was the case when the fish were fresh nonetheless be perfectly safe to eat, the smell notwithstand- (see Stefansson’s 1920 alternative and, in my view, rather ing. In other words, just because meat is putrid does not far-fetched way of explaining what appears to be the same mean it contains unsafe levels of pathogens—‘putrid’ and behavior in his sled dogs). It is worth noting in this regard ‘pathogenic’ are not synonymous. And as will become emi- that dogs worldwide have no problem consuming carrion nently clear in what follows, many, perhaps most, northern (e.g., Gipson and Sealander 1976; Kamler et al. 2003). In foragers, at least until quite recently, actually considered fact, free-ranging domestic dogs in rural areas of Zimba- foods in just that sort of thoroughly putrefied state—mag- bwe have been so successful at locating and scavenging gots and all—as rewarding and delicious. And they appear carrion that they are actually outcompeting vultures and, to have been utterly unfazed by odors that would almost at least in some instances, even hyenas. Vultures seem to be certainly trigger an instant gag reflex among most Western- facing similar intense competition from free-ranging and ers. feral domestic dogs in other parts of Africa as well (Butler One additional point needs clarification before we and du Toit 2002; see also Vanak et al. 2014). proceed. I use the term ‘rancid’ to refer specifically to the Thus, it seems clear that eating fermented or putrefied degradation of lipids in meat or fish in the presence of ox- meat and fish offered important benefits to northern forag- ygen, an ‘autoxidation’ process quite distinct from what ers. But so too did eating these same foods raw, whether happens to lipids that are fermented or putrefied. The eth- fresh or frozen. And of course at times northern foragers nohistoric and ethnographic literature frequently conflates chose to cook some of their food, although the cooking these two processes and as a result can be quite confusing, was almost invariably minimal to an extreme. What we are if not downright misleading. Thus, northern foragers were missing is an understanding of the factors that ultimately perfectly content to eat meat, fat, and oils that were fer- determined the relative importance—both seasonally and mented or putrefied because they knew they were safe and annually—of fermented versus raw versus cooked meat nutritionally beneficial, but they would go to considerable and fish in these foodways. This is an interesting issue that lengths to prevent the fats in meat and especially fish and would be well worth exploring further in the ethnohistoric marine mammals from going rancid, because these could and ethnographic realm, as it might provide us with a com- be unsafe to eat or even toxic. In other words, it is impor- parative framework that would be helpful for modeling the tant to keep in mind the important distinction between role played by these alternative means of food preparation meat and fish that have been fermented, even rotted and in analogous environments in the Paleolithic. full of maggots, from meat and fish in which the fats have become oxidized and rancid. INSIGHTS FROM FOOD SCIENCES Let us turn now to the technical literature on ferment- AND FORENSICS ed meat. I was not particularly surprised to find that the Let me begin by clarifying some confusion that may al- vast majority of this literature is commercially oriented, ready have arisen concerning the meaning of terms like with very little attention to homemade products, but I was ‘fermented,’ ‘spoiled,’ ‘rotted,’ ‘putrid,’ and ‘rancid.’ In shocked by its overwhelming focus on sausages. Moreover, popular usage, if someone describes meat as ‘fermented,’ I the vast majority of these studies assume from the get-go think most of us would assume that it is safe to eat, though that meat fermentation requires salt, usually lots of it, and not necessarily something we would find personally to often substantial quantities of nitrites (to maintain an ap- our liking. However, if a meat or fish product is described pealing reddish coloration). In addition, the focus of these as ‘spoiled,’ I think we would assume it is something we works is almost invariably on products of the northern should not eat, and it may in fact be unsafe. And I doubt hemisphere, especially European ones, and to a lesser ex- there would be any hesitation about what to do with meat tent those of the United States and Canada. Studies of the or fish that is characterized as ‘rotten’ or ‘putrid.’ Foods in fermented meats of East and Southeast Asia, at least those that state of decomposition would be destined for the trash published in languages that I can either read directly or can or compost pile at the earliest opportunity. translate online (and be rewarded with results that are not But this is precisely where things become confusing, complete gibberish), are rare by comparison. Two entire 50 • PaleoAnthropology 2017 continents—Africa and South America—for all practical their grandchildren, the elders are abandoning many of purposes do not exist in much of this literature. their traditional foodways. An unfortunate consequence of And as far as fermentation’s past is concerned, the vast the speed with which this transition has taken place is that majority of authors simply assert what appears to be little we are left with little in the way of ‘hard’ data concerning more than inherited wisdom, namely that fermentation the traditional ways of fermenting and rotting meat and saw its beginnings a few millennia ago in the Near East and fish (for examples of wonderful exceptions to this gener- Egypt with the development of beer, wine, and bread. The alization, see Frink and Giordano 2015; Jones 2006): How possibility that fermented foods—both meat- and plant- widespread was the practice of fermentation in the past? based—might have been independently developed, and at How similar or different were such practices among coastal an equally early date, in the New World is seldom consid- Inuit and interior boreal forest groups? How much of tra- ered, and the idea that fermentation might have its roots, ditional Native diet was comprised of fermented foods? not among farming peoples of the Neolithic or Bronze Age, Were foods fermented primarily during certain seasons of but among earlier hunter-gatherers, borders on heresy. the year, or was fermentation employed more or less con- Needless-to-say, the authors of the vast majority of these sistently over the entire year? How were these foods actu- studies appear to be utterly unaware that there are peoples ally fermented or rotted? For example, how big and deep like Inuit and Siberian reindeer herder-hunters who still were the pits? How often were seal pokes used rather than make extensive use of fermented and putrefied meat and pits? When pits were used, what species of plants were se- fish, and who have probably done so for centuries, if not lected to line them and what specific properties made them millennia; and that there is archaeological evidence that suitable for the purpose? How were the foods placed in the not only takes early fermentation out of the Near East, but pits? Randomly? Layered? What was the setting of the pits pushes its origins back at least 9,200 years to the early Me- in terms of local topography, hydrology, soils, shade? How solithic (e.g., Boethius 2016). much air was allowed to circulate within these pits? How The way ‘spoilage’ is defined in much of the- com often were foods stored in bogs, ponds, and rivers? In what mercial fermentation literature is also relevant because it depth of water? How were the foods anchored so they did is frequently based more on Western cultural values than not begin to float as fermentation gases began to form? Did on actual threats to health. For example, fermented meat they need protection from terrestrial carnivores? From car- products such as sausages typically are evaluated by pan- nivorous fish? els of experts who deem a product ‘spoiled’ if its taste, It is clear that the fermentation process is not a simple odor, texture, or color are ‘off’ by comparison to some mu- matter, but one that required a great deal of expertise and tually agreed upon standard. It is not surprising, then, that practical experience in order to end up with a product that Euroamerican explorers, missionaries, traders, trappers, was safe to eat (Frink 2009). This is clearly shown by the colonial officials, military personnel, and ethnographers— significant rise since the 1970s and 1980s in the incidence raised in essentially the same Western cultural milieu as of botulism—a potentially deadly illness caused by the these expert panel members—would bring to the arctic toxin of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The marked similar cultural values and biases. No wonder they were upswing in botulism occurred hand-in-hand with the in- ‘less than enthusiastic’ about meat and fish that had been troduction of plastic bags, glass bottles, and other suppos- deliberately rotted in the ground or in a river or pond for edly more ‘hygienic’ methods of fermenting meat and fish weeks or months, often to the point that they reeked and (Chiou et al. 2002; Fagan et al. 2011; Shaffer et al. 1990). were crawling with maggots (Diptera fly larvae, probably Cases of botulism remain very rare when these same foods Hypoderma [Oedemagena] tarandi, Pape 2001; Schrader et are fermented in below-ground pits or in lakes and ponds al. 2016; Wood 1987; see Guthrie 2005: 6 for an interesting using traditional methods (Fagan et al. 2011: 585). comment about their value as a fat source in the modern The rapid disappearance of fermented and rotted meat arctic and their likely similar role in the Upper Paleolithic). and fish from contemporary Native cuisine, coupled with No wonder these visitors were disgusted when their hosts the prevailing Western view that such foods are ‘disgust- proceeded to eat the maggots right along with the rotten ing’ and presumably unhealthy, if not downright toxic, has meat, and did so with obvious gusto! To unaccustomed created the (misleading) impression that ‘stinkhead,’ rot- Westerners in their midst, the stench of foods like ‘stink- ted meat, and fermented reindeer and ptarmigan stomach head’ (deliberately rotted fish heads) was so overpowering contents were at best marginal resources, and more likely that even the hardiest visitors had to exit the dwelling to served as very minor fall-back or starvation foods that were vomit, only to be met with laughter when they re-entered resorted to when ‘preferred’ foods were in short supply. I their host’s abode (Stefansson 1914: 160). suspect this view has spilled over into the archaeological Aided nowadays by TV, movies, expanding market conscience as well, and is part of the reason why Paleolith- economies, and intrusive government policies, Western ic archaeologists have paid so little attention to the issue, attitudes about food have been rapidly winning out, sup- despite the fact that the environments that were home to planting the traditional foods and foodways of the north. Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic peoples in Pleistocene Younger generations are now embarrassed by ‘stinkhead’ Eurasia were broadly similar to those inhabited by north- and ‘rotted flipper,’ foods once relished by their elders; and, ern hunter-gatherers of the ‘ethnographic present.’ Even in deference to the newly acquired ‘Westernized’ tastes of some of the key resources were similar (e.g., reindeer, red Putrid Meat and Fish in the Paleolithic • 51 deer or North American elk, bison, salmon). The difficulty vey much better than I possibly could what was involved in ‘seeing’ fermented and rotted foods in the archaeological in the fermentation process and, of particular importance record certainly has not helped matters, but if no one ‘asks to the present discussion, the relish and gusto with which the question,’ we will never find out just how important these Native populations perceived what to most Western these foods might have been to the lives and lifeways of observers were viewed as utterly disgusting, noxious, and Paleolithic foragers. quite likely toxic foods. These quotes should make it emi- Before turning to the ethnohistoric and ethnographic nently clear that rotted foods were not merely emergency evidence of fermentation and putrefaction among northern resources when all else failed; these were routinely used latitude peoples, one final point is worth noting here. Food and highly desired foods, readily prepared and easily scientists are not the only ones who study fermentation. As stored over weeks or months, and pre-digested with little already hinted at, that is also what a lot of forensic special- and often no need for cooking. ists do. They just use different vocabularies and have quite I should point out a few important biases in this pot- different ultimate goals (Campobasso et al. 2001; Crippen pourri of examples. Probably the most significant one is a et al. 2016; Forbes and Carter 2016; Wallace 2016). What the direct outcome of my deficiencies as a linguist. By not being former call ‘fermentation,’ the latter call ‘putrefaction’ or able to read any of the Scandinavian languages, and not ‘decomposition,’ and, of course, the former are concerned faring any better with Russian, my sample from northern largely about culturally determined standards of taste, tex- Eurasia is minimal at best. Someone able to read these lan- ture, color, and smell, while for obvious reasons the latter guages, particularly as they were written prior to the 19th- are concerned, not about palatability or food safety, but century, would undoubtedly find a wealth of additional about estimating how long a body has been dead—the material. There are of course lots of language translators, so-called ‘postmortem interval’ or PMI. But regardless of both free versions online and expensive commercial variet- whether a homicide victim was buried in a shallow grave ies, but my experience with both types has been frustrating, or dumped in a lake, the decomposition of the body follows to say the least. For one thing, they remain virtually hope- more or less the same trajectory that one sees in the rotted less when it comes to inferring context and, as a result, of- meat and stinkhead relied upon by circumpolar hunters ten generate output that amounts to little more than gibber- and gatherers—i.e., breakdown of proteins, carbohydrates, ish, both grammatically and in terms of content. Moreover, and lipids through a combination of endogenous and exog- such translators are of little or no help in browsing digital enous processes, shifts in pH and available oxygen, growth libraries full of lengthy 18th-century travel accounts, only of lactic acid bacteria, infestation of corpses by Diptera lar- in translating brief snippets of text that you already knew vae (maggots), and so forth. So, while it may at first seem about in advance. In any case, the result is that my sample counterintuitive, archaeologists who seek to develop the is heavily biased toward the North American arctic, and to middle range theory and methods needed to investigate sources either written in English or subsequently translated past reliance on fermented and putrefied meat might bene- into English by someone fluent in the language. fit greatly by enlisting the help, not just of nutritionists and Another key source of bias arises from the fact that Eu- food scientists, but also of forensic specialists who study roamerican explorers visited the more sedentary coastal the decomposition of corpses. In a surprising number of peoples, both Inuit and Northwest Coast groups, far more ways, both are studying the same thing. often than they did the mobile hunting bands living deep within the interior of Alaska and Canada. Moreover, in ETHNOHISTORIC AND searching the vast literature available online, the Inuit are ETHNOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE by far the easiest to work with, as spellings have morphed Let us now take a tour of the ethnohistoric and ethnograph- only slightly over the last several centuries (e.g., Esquime- ic literature to gain some idea of how meat, fish, and fat au, Esquimaux, Eskimos, Inuit). Names given to Northwest were fermented or deliberately rotted. Many of these de- Coast groups are more complex and more varied, and those scriptions focus on marine mammals and fish, but there are given to the countless bands of Athabaskan and Algonkian also quite a few mentions of caribou and reindeer, some speakers spread across the interior of Alaska and Canada hunted by coastal groups, others taken by inland peoples. are a veritable nightmare, a bewildering array of referents In terms of the Paleolithic, marine mammals and fish were and orthographies that make it exceedingly difficult to con- clearly far more important to Upper Paleolithic peoples duct a thorough search of the foodways of any one group. than to Neanderthals, but both hominins made heavy use The cumulative result of these many biases is a prepon- of reindeer (and of course other ungulates as well). But per- derance of examples derived from Inuit groups and a heavy haps the major message of this section is not which specific focus on marine mammals and salmon. Interior groups are animals were utilized, but the process of fermentation or less well represented, with concomitantly fewer examples putrefaction itself, the many ways it was accomplished, the of the treatment of terrestrial resources like moose (Alces), times of year when such foods were prepared and when caribou, and freshwater fish. In order to provide some sem- they were consumed, and the state of the final products blance of balance in what follows, I decided to order the that were considered desirable as food. Though perhaps examples chronologically. This accomplished two things. a bit lengthy, I think this section is best presented using First, it interdigitated examples from coast and interior, direct quotes, since the original words of the authors con- so that the reader does not come away with the mistaken 52 • PaleoAnthropology 2017 view that preparing and eating putrefied meat and fish was “About twelve we also observed an Indian walking along largely a coastal phenomenon involving marine resources. the North-East shore, when the small canoes paddled to- And second, by ordering the examples from earliest to lat- wards him. We accordingly followed, and found three men, three women, and two children, who had been on est, one can see that putrefied meat and fish have been an an hunting expedition. They had some flesh of the rein- integral part of northern cuisine from the time of first con- deer, which they offered to us, but it was so rotten, as tact to the present, and remain highly valued symbols of well as offensive to the smell, that we excused ourselves the ‘old’ ways to this very day. from accepting it.” (Mackenzie 1814: 42) “Our hunters found their canoe and the fowl they had “What knowledge they haue of God, or what Idol they got, secreted in the woods; and soon after, the people adore, wee haue no perfect intelligence. I thincke them themselves, whom they brought to the water side. Out of rather Anthropophagi, or deuourers of mans fleshe, then two hundred geese, we picked thirty-six which were eat- otherwise: for that there is no flesh or fishe, which they able; the rest were putrid, and emitted a horrid stench. finde dead, (smell it neuer so filthily) but they will eate it, They had been killed some time without having been as they finde it, without any other dressing. A loathsome gutted, and in this state of loathsome rottenness, we have spectacle, either to the beholders, or hearers.” (Settle every reason to suppose they are eaten by the natives.” 1577: not paginated) (Mackenzie 1814: 86)

“They will, with so great an Appetite and Greediness, “Several of them had bags of blubber, mixed with half- feed upon the rotten and stinking Seal Flesh, that it turns putrid half-frozen flesh; these they offered for sale with the Stomach of any hungry Man, who looks upon them.” great eagerness, and appeared very much surprised that (Egede 1745: 135) they got no purchasers. Being anxious to examine their contents, I was induced to buy one; on opening it, how- “In Spring and Summer they catch a large Quantity of ever, such a shocking stench proceeded from it, that I Fish, and digging Holes in the Ground, which they line very cheerfully restored it to the original possessor. I had with the Bark of Birch, they fill them with it, and cover no sooner returned it to him, than applying the open ex- the Holes over with Earth. As soon as they think the Fish tremity to his mouth, took a drink from it, licked his lips, is rotten and tender, they take out some of it, pour Water and laid it aside very carefully.” (M’Keevor 1819: 33) upon it, and boil it with red-hot Pebbles...and feed upon it, as the greatest Delicacy in the World. This Mess stinks “When the Esquimaux visit us from the tent, they gener- so abominably, that the Russians who deal with them, ally go to the spot where the carcases of the whales are and who are none of the most squeamish, are themselves left to rot after the blubber is taken, and carry away a not able to endure it.” (Mueller 1761: ix) part, but generally from the fin or the tail; they have been known, however, to take the maggots from the putrid “[Feb. 13, 1780]—I was compelled by hunger to try some carcase, and to boil them with train oil as a rich repast.” of the frozen venison of the Eskimos, for I had not a (West 1824: 173) morsel of my own provision left. I was surprised to find how agreeable it tasted, although some of it had a ran- “The spawn of the salmon, which is a principal article cid smell, having been killed in summer and remained of their provision; they take out, and without any other ever since buried under stones. They had taken the skin preparation, throw it into their tubs, where they leave it off but left the intestines and paunch in the carcass. The to stand and ferment, for though they frequently eat it Eskimos were extremely pleased to see that I could rel- fresh, they esteem it much more when it has acquired ish their meat, and said that I would suffer no hunger a strong taste, and one of the greatest favors they can with them now as they had plenty of Mammuck—that confer on any person, is to invite him to eat Quakamiss, is, stinking meat.” (Taylor and Turner 1969: 145) the name they give this food, though scarcely any thing can be more repugnant to a European palate, than it is in “The most remarkable dish among them; as well as all this state; and whenever they took it out of these large the other tribes of Indians in those parts, both Northern receptacles, which they are always careful to fill, such and Southern, is blood mixed with the half-digested was the stench which it exhaled, on being moved, that food which is found in the deer’s [caribou’s] stomach or it was almost impossible for me to abide it, even after paunch, and boiled up with a sufficient quantity of wa- habit, had in a great degree dulled the delicacy of my ter, to make it of the consistence of pease-pottage. Some senses.” (Jewitt 1849: 88) fat and scraps of tender flesh are also shred small and boiled with it. To render this dish more palatable, they “...I have frequently known them when a whale has been have a method of mixing the blood with the contents of driven ashore, bring pieces of it home with them in a the stomach in the paunch itself, and hanging it up in the state of offensiveness insupportable to any thing but a heat and smoke of the fire for several days; which puts crow, and devour it with high relish, considering it as the whole mass into a slate of fermentation....” (Hearne preferable to that which is fresh.” (Jewitt 1849: 97) 1795: 316–317) “Their manner of preserving their meat is quite char- “The stomach of no other large animal beside the deer acteristic. When an animal is killed the bowels are ex- [caribou] is eaten by any of the Indians that border on tracted, then the fore and hind quarters are cut off, and Hudson’s Bay. In Winter, when the deer feed on fine being placed inside the carcass, are secured by skewers white moss, the contents of the stomach is so much es- of wood run through the flesh. The whole is then depos- teemed by them, that I have often seen them sit round ited under the nearest cleft of rock, and stones are built a deer where it was killed, and eat it warm out of the round so as to secure it from the depredations of wild paunch.” (Hearne 1795: 317–318) animals until the hunters return to the coast; when the meat is in high flavour, and considered fit for the palate Putrid Meat and Fish in the Paleolithic • 53 of an Esquimaux epicure.” (McLean 1849: 140) has a most penetrating and far-reaching ‘funk,’ then it is ready to be eaten and made merry over. The box is “It is well known that both Esquimaux and Indians are usually uncovered without removing it from its buried very fond of the contents of the paunch of the rein-deer, position; the eager savages all squat around it, and eat particularly in the spring, when the vegetable substances the contents with every indication on their hard faces of on which the animal feeds are said to be sweeter tasted. I keen gastronomic delight—faugh!” (Elliott 1887: 56–57) have often seen our hunter, Nibitabo, when he had shot a deer, cut open the stomach, and sup the contents with “Ikwa...returned in a jubilant frame of mind, and an- as much relish as a London alderman would a plate of nounced his discovery of a cached seal. He asked Mr. turtle soup.” (Rae 1850: 150) Peary if he might bring the seal to Redcliffe in the boat, saying it was the finest kind of eating for himself and “They [Carrier] all prefer their meat putrid, and fre- family. We could not understand why this particular seal quently keep it until it smells so strong as to be disgust- should be so much nicer than those he had at Redcliffe; ing. Parts of the salmon they bury under ground for two but as he seemed very eager to have it, we gave him the or three months to putrefy, and the more it is decayed desired permission, and off he started, saying that he the greater delicacy they consider it.” (Wilkes 1851: 452) would be back very soon. About half an hour later the air became filled with the most horrible stench it has ever “De la mi-juin à la mi-juillet, les Tchiglit se livrent à la been my misfortune to endure, and it grew worse and pêche du hareng, du poisson blanc et de l’inconnu, dans worse until at last we were forced to make an investiga- les innombrables chenaux du Mackenzie. Ils conservent tion. Going to the corner of the cliff, we came upon the le poisson qu’ils ne consomment pas, soit en l’exposant Eskimo carrying upon his back an immense seal, which à la fumée d’un petit feu, soit en le mettant en saumure had every appearance of having been buried at least dans des outres pleines d’huile de marsouin qu’ils sus- two years. Great fat maggots dropped from it at every pendent à des arbres. Il ne se peut concevoir d’odeur step that Ikwa made, and the odor was really terrible. semblable à celle qui s’exhale de ces vaisseaux, lorsque Mr. Peary told him that it was out of the question to put les Esquimaux les ouvrent pour en déguster le contenu. that thing in the boat; and, indeed, it was doubtful if we Toutefois, il m’a paru que ces poissons crus et rouges would not be obliged to hang the man himself overboard de fermentation doivent être un excellent mets, tant nos in order to disinfect and purify him. But this child of na- Tchiglit les mangent avec voracité.” (Petitot 1876: 12) ture did not see the point, and was very angry at being obliged to leave his treasure. After he was through pout- “When these fish are caught, they are put into a seal-skin ing, he told us that the more decayed the seal the finer bag, and it remains tied up till the whole becomes a mass the eating, and he could not understand why we should of putrid and fermenting fish, about as repulsive to taste, object. He thought the odor ‘pe-uh-di-och-soah’ (very sight, and smell as can be imagined.” (Kumlien 1879: 20) good).” (Diebitsch-Peary 1894: 59–60)

“With an axe the rib pieces were soon severed from the “On one occasion I objected to some fish which an old back-bone, and then from the inside of these the natives man brought into the lodge as not being fresh enough, cut strips with their sheath-knives, and handed me a and made signs to that effect, chiefly with the aid of my chunky morsel from the loin, as breakfast. I bit into it nose. The old man went away and brought some more without any ceremony, while the dogs clamored franti- which were far worse. On these being rejected he beck- cally for a share. So long as it remained frozen the meat oned me to come with him, and leading me to a swampy did not exhibit the vile extent of its putridity; but directly spot at the back of his barrabora pointed out what I took I had taken it into my mouth it melted like butter, and to be a newly made grave. I made signs of interrogation at the same time gave off such a disgusting odor that I and deep sympathy, whereupon he scraped away the hastily relinquished my hold upon it, and the dogs cap- loose earth with a fish spear and lifted a board which tured it at a single gulp. The natives first stared in genu- covered the top of the pit. I fully expected to see the body ine astonishment to see me cast away such good food to of a dearly beloved relative, and experienced nearly as the dogs, and then burst forth into hearty laughter at my great a shock when I found the pit was filled to the brim squeamishness. But I was not to be outdone, much less with a seething mass of rotten salmon. The old fellow’s ridiculed, by a Yakut, and so ordered some more, per- next signs I fully understood; they were to the effect that haps a pound of the stuff, cut up into little bits. These I if I wanted something really good I must give him more swallowed like so many pills, and then gazed on my Ya- than the usual amount of tobacco leaves, and I began to kut friends in triumph; but not long, for in a little while realise that he had misunderstood my sign language and my stomach heated the decomposed mess, an intolerable thought I was objecting to his fish because they were too gas arose and retched me, and again I abandoned my fresh.” (Pike 1896: 258) breakfast,—my loss, however, becoming the dogs’ gain. At this the natives were nearly overcome with mirth; but “Some of them [Big Bellies] invited us to their huts to eat, I astonished them by my persistence, requesting a third in expectation of receiving a bit of tobacco, but we found dose, albeit the second one had teemed with maggots; it impossible to taste their dried meat; it was so nearly and, swallowing the sickening bits as before, my stom- putrid that the pieces would scarcely hold together. This, ach retained them out of pure exhaustion.” (Melville and however, is entirely to their liking; they seldom use meat Phillips 1885: 226–227) till it is rotten; they keep it in their huts, unexposed to the air, till it is almost impossible for a stranger to remain “But the ‘loudest’ feast of these savages consists of a indoors on account of the stench arising from putrefac- box, just opened, of semi-rotten salmon-roe. Many of the tion.” (Coues 1897: 356–357) Siwashes have a custom of collecting the ova, putting it into wooden boxes, and then burying it below high- “The chief delight of the Indians is in the parts of the water mark on the earthen flats above. When decom- fish that are usually discarded by white people. For in- position has taken place to a great extent, and the mass stance, they line a pit with the big leaves of the skunk 54 • PaleoAnthropology 2017 cabbage, which grow here to enormous size. Then they “Although it would be easy to construct storerooms in fill the space with the heads of the hump-backed salmon, the frozen ground, in which meat could be preserved and, lining the top over nicely with more skunk cabbage in good condition, the Chukchee are satisfied with their leaves, they cover it all over with dirt. Now this would ill-protected cellars, in which the provisions soon begin be a very commendable way of disposing of the salmon to become putrid. Therefore both the Reindeer and the heads if they were satisfied to leave them covered up, Maritime Chukchee live on putrid meat throughout the but they are not. After about six weeks they give a grand summer and part of the winter.” (Bogoras 1904: 195) potlatch, which continues as long as this delicate and ar- tistic creation holds out.” (Maris 1897: 6) “When the Reindeer people drive their herds to the summer pastures, ten or fifteen animals are slaughtered for “Meat is frequently kept for a considerable length of summer provisions. The meat is simply hung in the tent, time and some times until it becomes semiputrid. At where it is easily accessible to carrion-flies and other in- Point Barrow, in the middle of August, 1881, the people sects. After several days it is placed in a pit dug in the still had the carcasses of deer which had been killed the centre of the tent, and covered with sod. Later on, when preceding winter and spring. This meat was kept in the pit is opened, the stench is so strong that it is dis- small underground pits, which the frozen subsoil ren- agreeable to the natives themselves, who avoid staying dered cold, but not cold enough to prevent a bluish fun- in the tent until the pit is covered over again.” (Bogoras gus growth which completely covered the carcasses of 1904: 195) the animals and the walls of the storerooms.” (Nelson 1899: 267) “Among the upper tribes, particularly among the Déné, where the salmon are not taken in such quantities as “In the district between the Yukon and the Kuskokwim, nearer the mouth of the Fraser, the heads are always the heads of king salmon, taken in summer, are placed in carefully preserved for making oil. They are strung on small pits in the ground surrounded by straw and cov- willow rods and deposited in the water on some sandy ered with turf. They are kept there during summer and shore of the lake or stream, where they remain till they in the autumn have decayed until even the bones have have reached an advanced stage of decay. When ‘ripe’ become of the same consistency as the general mass. they are gathered up and placed in large trough-like They are then taken out and kneaded in a wooden tray receptacles, and boiled by means of the usual heating- until they form a pasty compound and are eaten as a fa- stones. During the boiling the oil rises from them to the vorite dish by some of the people. The odor of this mess surface and is skimmed off into birch-bark buckets, and is almost unendurable to one not accustomed to it, and afterwards stored away in bottles made from the whole is even too strong for the stomachs of many of the Es- skins of the salmon.” (Hill-Tout 1907: 94–95) kimo.” (Nelson 1899: 267) “We travelled on till 5.30 that evening, and camped un- “Their food is largely salmon, though seal, beluga, and der a conspicuous hill at what is called by the natives walrus also enter their diet when they can be obtained, ‘The Canoe Portage.’ Here the dogs started off at a run, and occasionally a deer or moose is taken. Their food is much to our surprise, making us think that a bear or all preferred ‘high’—not high in the sense of the epicure, some deer were in the neighborhood; but this was not but rotten; rancid oil is generally cooked with it or used the case: they had scented a dead whale, which must for sauce. The decaying carcass of a whale cast on the have been on the coast for five years at least, and soon beach attracts the natives for many miles, and a grand proceeded to dig under the snow. The natives took them feast is held over it; rotten salmon heads are a bonne out of their harness, and proceeded to put up the tents, bouche.” (Moser 1902: 178) not knowing what was buried there. While this was being done the dogs made several holes down in the snow, “As soon as the salmon come into this lake, they go in and tried in vain to tear away some portion of blubber search of the rivers and brooks, that fall into it; and these or meat from the carcass. The natives soon got to work streams they ascend so far as there is water to enable with their knives, and cut off great quantities of putrid them to swim; and when they can proceed no farther up, flesh, which, though frozen, stunk with so bad an odour they remain there and die. None were ever seen to de- that I found it most repulsive; they then proceeded to eat scend these streams. They are found dead in such num- great quantities of it, and seemed to enjoy it as much as bers, in some places, as to infect the atmosphere, with a the dogs did. I could not join in this feast, but retired into terrible stench, for a considerable distance round. But, my tent to enjoy a meal of tea, which greatly refreshed even when they are in a putrefied state, the Natives fre- me.” (Harrison 1908: 241–242) quently gather them up and eat them, apparently, with as great a relish, as if they were fresh.” (Harmon 1903: “The Carriers had other delicacies, among which half 171) putrid salmon roe and a most stinking oil extracted from the same fish held a prominent place. The way- “The Carriers cut off the heads of salmon, and throw farer through their country cannot help observing the them into the lake, where they permit them to remain a many cavities, evidently of an artificial origin, that dot month, or at least until they become putrefied. They then the immediate vicinity of their streams or the outskirts take them out, and put them into a trough, made of bark, of their ancient village sites. They are the pits wherein filled with water. Into this trough they put a sufficiency the fish roe was formerly deposited and covered up with of heated stones, to make the water boil for a time, which earth for a twelvemonth or so. At the expiration of that will cause the oil to come out of the heads of the salmon, time, it was considered sufficiently done, and consumed, and rise to the top of the water. This they skim off, and raw or cooked, generally with preserved berries. In this put into bottles made of salmon skins; and they eatit advanced stage of putrefaction it was deemed the most with their berries. Its smell however is very disagree- dainty morsel imaginable, though Harmon is inconsid- able; and no people would think of eating it excepting erate enough to declare that it then fills the air with a the Carriers.” (Harmon 1903: 284) terrible stench, and even to a considerable distance. This Putrid Meat and Fish in the Paleolithic • 55 is certainly true of their nasty fish oil, and I heartily con- ing such rotten foods as would kill a white man in short cur in his statement that ‘a person who eats this food, order. When they began digging their vitiated surplus and rubs salmon oil in his hands, can be smelt in warm meats from the caches and snow banks, when their diet weather, to a distance of nearly a quarter of a mile’.” consisted of rotten fish and rancid fat, I would suffer (Morice 1909: 597) many qualms as to the probable outcome. Invariably I would provide my medicine kit with items for combat- “In eating raw fish today, only slightly high, I could ing and treating ptomaine poison, and always, to my ut- barely smell it in the tent, Anderson (Kotzebue) had to ter astonishment, they would eat those rotten poisonous go out and throw up what he had eaten, at which the foods and thrive on them. Lest the reader might think other five (some Kogmollik, some Nunatama) who were that the cooking process would destroy the poisons in eating in our tent laughed very much. When he came their vitiated foods, I wish to say that in only a few in- back he told me that his people never eat raw fish unless stances did they cook their food.” (Garber 1938: 245) it is well rotted. The Kogmollik and Nunatama prefer it a little rotten, but are fond of it in all stages from fresh “Caribou meat and fish are eaten raw, and are preferred from the net to a cheesy consistency. His people bury when they are rotten; caribou and fish heads are boiled. fish in the ground to rot it.” (Stefansson 1914: 160) The caribou liver is allowed to ferment inside the moss- filled caribou stomach under a hot sun for some days “The Arctic ‘salad,’ which seems to be favoured more before being eaten....” (Sinclair 1953: 72) in winter, when no vegetable food has been seen for months, is the first stomach or rumen of the caribou “Decayed fish were not eaten during the warm weather; when it happens to be filled with freshly-chewed rein- they were not considered good until frozen. As soon as deer-moss or Cladonia lichens. This is frozen whole and the freeze-up came, they began to be used as delicacies, sliced off very thin, the gastric juice supplying the acid, sometimes as whole meals. The only way of serving de- and a liberal mixture of seal-oil the salad dressing. The cayed fish was to allow them to thaw in the house un- caribou stomach is seldom eaten except when filled til they were as soft as hard ice cream, when they were with the succulent reindeer-moss, and when it contains eaten somewhat as a child would consume an ice cream woody grass-fibre is usually discarded. This food may cone.” (Stefansson 1960: 36) properly be classed as ‘pre-digested,’ and under certain extenuating circumstances, such as a trail appetite, a “A delicacy for them [Nganasan] was the meat of wild long siege of one-course rations of meat, anything ‘dif- reindeer that had been left for a time where they were ferent’ may have some attractions, but few white men caught without being disemboweled. Such meat soon venture to experiment with it.” (Anderson 1918: 64) became putrid and had an unpleasant taste....” (Popov 1966: 111) “Usually, when parties leave for the summer deer hunting, the old people and some of the children stay at the “...in autumn the Karelians buried wild reindeer meat in tide water at the mouth of a good salmon river, and put a swamp and left it there until winter came...and the Kola all the fish they take under piles of rocks. The earlier Lapps threw young reindeer into a lake or river, where caught become very soft and rotten, and are used in win- they were left until they had a slightly ‘bad smell’.” (Ei- ter as dog feed, though the natives enjoy a feed of this dlitz 1969: 108) ‘for a change,’ just as they do rotten walrus or seal meat, which in white nostrils smells to high heaven.” (Munn “Interviews with 12 elderly Yupik [Inuit] indicated that 1922: 271) fish heads were traditionally fermented in clay pits dug in the ground; families used the same pit each year.... “...lann = Fleisch, das im Wasser aufbewahrt worden The Athabascans [non-Inuit Native Americans] ferment ist, vor allem Wildrenfleisch im Sommer. Dadurch hat fish by floating a string of fish heads in the river for one das Fleisch einen säuerlichen Geschmack erhalten und to two weeks.” (Shaffer et al. 1990: 392; see also Wain- wurde als eine Leckerei angesehen.” [...lann = Meat that wright 1993: 316) has been kept in the water, especially wild meat in the summer. This has given the meat a sour taste and has “We now saw these people again at their own village, been regarded as a treat.] (Väinö Tanner [1928]; cited in and what a smelly place it was!—racks and racks of dried Pohlhausen 1953: 988; English translation mine) fish, hundreds of salmon heads strung up, and sacks full of salmon eggs rotting and oozing out. They buried these “Right alongside the spot where we pitched our camp eggs in pits to keep for dog feed in the winter, they told we found an old cache of caribou meat—two years old I us, but I believe this was to ferment them for human was told. We cleared the stones away and fed the dogs, consumption, just as we process and enjoy certain strong for it is law in this country that as soon as a cache is more cheeses. Since the Indians were sensitive to possible ridi- than a winter and a summer old, it falls to the one who cule from white people, these people probably wanted has use for it. The meat was green with age, and when us to think that this smelly treat was only for the dogs. we made a cut in it, it was like the bursting of a boil, so The last year’s pits were open and full of putrid water full of great white maggots was it. To my horror my com- and maggots.” (de Laguna 2000: 287) panions scooped out handfuls of the crawling things and ate them with evident relish. I criticised their taste, but “The walrus is a valued source of traditional food, prized they laughed at me and said, not illogically: ‘You your- for its meat which is often fermented for several months self like caribou meat, and what are these maggots but inside the skin of the walrus buried in the ground.” (Fe- live caribou meat? They taste just the same as the meat diuk 2000: 54) and are refreshing to the mouth.’” (Rasmussen 1931: 60) “Along the Arctic shore, Fermented Stink Heads were “In the beginning of my educational and medical ser- made by digging a hole in the sand and lining it with vice among the western Eskimos I witnessed them eat- acidic leaves. Ideally, the hole was filled with salmon 56 • PaleoAnthropology 2017 heads and one- or two-day-old salmon eggs, preferably would otherwise be degraded or lost through cooking, as from vigorous humpies or pinks caught on their way well as through traditional methods of food storage such as upriver to the spawning grounds. The heads were ei- drying and smoking. ther individually wrapped or simply layered with wild celery leaves and/or dried eelgrass. They were then cov- That deliberately putrefied meat can provide healthy ered with more acidic leaves and topped with wood or nourishment, with little or no fear of infection from patho- dirt, and the contents left to ripen for two weeks to two genic bacteria, far beyond the arctic and subarctic has been months.” (Spray 2002: 38) clearly demonstrated by a unique set of experiments carried out in the state of Michigan (USA) by Daniel Fisher (1995), a “The second method for procuring fermented foods was as a by-product of hunting. Herbivorous animals fre- paleontologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. quently ate lichens and grasses toxic to humans, but after Fisher began his experiments by caching mostly small, un- the plants had decomposed or fermented in the animal’s cooked leg units of lamb during the fall of 1989 in shallow stomach, aided by the acidic digestive juices, the stom- ponds and bogs in the southern part of the state. This part ach contents were perfectly safe for human consump- of the Midwestern USA is characterized by hot humid sum- tion. These naturally fermented foods came from the stomachs of freshly killed moose and caribou, or from mers (average high in July: 28°C/83°F) and short, moder- ptarmigan intestines. With a slightly sweet, earthy taste, ately cold winters (average low in January: –8°C/18°F). Giv- they were a hunter’s reward, and very welcome.” (Spray en Fisher’s ultimate interest in late Pleistocene megafaunal 2002: 38) extinctions, he decided to expand these initial experiments to look at the feasibility of storing meat from a much larg- “...the owner also kept fish heads under water by hanging them on a line attached to the cutting table, one step er animal under water. Thus, in the early 1990s he began in preparing a fermented fish dish commonly called pond-caching partially disarticulated carcass units of a 680 ‘stink heads.’” (Fall et al. 2010: 61) kg (1,500 lb) draft horse. He put these units into a shallow pond during the winter by inserting them through holes chopped in the ice, and then anchored them to the bottom POND STORAGE: using sediment-filled intestines. At regular intervals he col- THE DANIEL FISHER EXPERIMENTS lected representative samples of meat and checked them The ethnohistoric and ethnographic literature clearly shows for odor, physical condition, and bacterial content. that meat and fish can be preserved for many months by The results of these experiments are very informative. fermentation and putrefaction. Two of the technologically The meat retained an essentially fresh appearance, with least complex and most widely used approaches were to low total bacterial counts, until spring, when it began to bury the food in a shallow pit or immerse it in a bog, lake, turn more acidic and distinctly ‘cheesy’ smelling. Fisher or river. And while in both types of storage putrefaction of attributes the change to increasing activity of lactic acid the final product was often so advanced that it was viewed bacteria (LAB), particularly members of the lactobacilli. by Westerners as disgusting and probably dangerous to By April, algae began to cover the exterior of the butchery eat, such foods in fact were not only free of serious patho- units, but beneath the outermost surface both meat and fat gens, but were highly esteemed by the foragers who de- were still entirely edible, though sour-smelling. The meat pended on them. became increasingly ‘cheesy’ and sour-tasting by June, but From the examples highlighted above, one might easily remained free of pathogens. Finally, in July and August the come away with the impression that storage of meat and meat, while still safe to eat, began to disintegrate. Needless- fish by putrefaction only works in arctic and subarctic envi- to-say, disintegration, and hence loss of meat, posed less of ronments. However, the many references provided earlier an issue for the carcass units that Fisher cached in bog set- show that rotted meat also was frequently eaten by Hadza, tings, and I would imagine that the same would be true for San (Bushmen), Maori, and other hunter-gatherers across meat cached in below-ground pits. a wide range of habitats and environments, and done so The take-away message from Fisher’s experiments is with a degree of gusto and impunity not unlike what we that ‘pond storage’ (i.e., storage in water, whether in a bog, have seen among Inuit and their boreal forest neighbors. pond, lake, or river) is a relatively low-tech, yet safe way of I think the major reason such techniques are so prominent caching meat and fish at strategic points on the landscape, in the northlands stems from the fact that they provide a one that can be used over a wide range of environments, low-cost solution to problems that are especially critical including regions far removed from the arctic and subarc- in the higher latitudes: (1) they reduce the high metabolic tic, and over much of the year, not just in winter when the costs of an all-meat diet by softening the food and ‘pre-di- pond or river is covered over by ice. gesting’ the protein and fat without the need for cooking and hence without the need for scarce fuel; (2) they allow THE DISGUST RESPONSE fatty meat and fish to be effectively preserved for long peri- Judging by the countless ethnohistoric and ethnographic ods of time in areas where frequent damp, cloudy, or rainy descriptions of the relish with which hunter-gatherers—es- weather precludes rapid and thorough drying of fatty meat pecially in the northern latitudes, but in many other parts and fish; and, (3) they offer a means of preserving critical of the globe as well—ate putrid meat, fish, and fat, it seems vitamins, especially vitamin C, that are not available from quite clear that the intense disgust that Euroamerican other types of foods such as fruits and vegetables, and that adults typically display to both the odor and sight of such Putrid Meat and Fish in the Paleolithic • 57 foods (revulsion, nausea, facial expressions of disgust) is in the heart of this paper. Regardless of disciplinary focus, be large measure a culturally learned response, not a human it modeling early hominin scavenging in archaeology, or universal that comes hard-wired in all of us at birth. In fact, evaluating the safety and acceptability of fermented sau- a large number of studies, beginning with the classic work sages in the food sciences, or attempting to account for the of psychologist Paul Rozin, show that children probably do origin and function of the disgust response in psychology, not begin to acquire the classic disgust responses that we specialists in these and other fields commonly operate with associate with the sight and smell of rotten and maggoty the same basic underlying assumption—that putrid meat meat until as late as the age of five or even later (see Herz is inherently unsafe to eat because of the (presumed) toxic- 2012: 46–47; Rozin et al. 2008: 765; Widen and Russell 2010). ity created by pathogens such as Clostridium botulinum. One And up to at least the age of seven children commonly mis- can see the power and pervasiveness of this assumption in interpret as anger the adult facial expressions connected the opening paragraph of a fairly recent article on the mi- with disgust (Widen and Russell 2010). crobiome of New World vultures (Roggenbuck et al. 2014). Anthony Synnott (1991) takes an interesting look at the Citing but a single reference for support (Reed and Rocke issue of smell from a sociological perspective, providing a 1992), one that is focused heavily on recent outbreaks of fascinating and wide-ranging overview of the many subtle botulism in waterfowl, these authors draw the sweeping and complex ways in which our perceptions of odors— generalization that: good versus bad, pleasing versus foul—have come to be inextricably interwoven into the very fabric of our culture, “The microbiota of vertebrates rapidly begin to decom- playing fundamental roles in demarcating and maintain- pose their hosts after death. During the subsequent breakdown of tissue, these microorganisms excrete toxic ing ethnic identities, economic statuses and social classes, metabolites, rapidly rendering the carcass a hazardous racial categories, moral and ethical valuations, and numer- food source for most carnivorous and omnivorous ani- ous other aspects of our day-to-day economic and social mals.” (Roggenbuck et al. 2014: 1) lives. Such studies make it clear that we learn the disgust response to substances like rotten meat, we are not born The hunter-gatherer literature clearly shows this sort of with it. It should come as no surprise, then, that children blanket assertion to be false. If this paper has accomplished in traditional arctic and subarctic foraging societies were nothing else, the reader should at least by now be con- brought up with a set of cultural values very different from vinced that rotten meat, even meat that reeks and is filled our own, ones in which their taste and smell preferences with maggots, may nonetheless be entirely safe to eat, and were closely and compatibly aligned with foodways that that even in an advanced state of decay such meat is (or were nutritionally sound, energetically realistic, and fuel- was until recently) viewed by many traditional foraging sparing in resource-poor high-latitude environments that peoples as a very desirable food. In short, just because meat were arguably among the most difficult ones on the planet is rotten does not automatically mean it is hazardous. The for members of our species to successfully colonize. toxicity of a decomposing carcass must be demonstrated, The results of these studies are interesting from an evo- not assumed. lutionary perspective. If the disgust response to a substance Despite the hunter-gatherer evidence, not to mention like rotten meat is not fully in place at the time of weaning, the tremendous advances in the fields of nutrition, food a young child’s point of greatest vulnerability to orally in- science, and microbiology, the biases expressed in Roggen- troduced vectors of diarrheal and other diseases, this calls buck et al.’s (2014: 1) opening paragraph remain steadfastly into question the conventional wisdom that the disgust re- entrenched. Nothing exposes the tenacity of this bias more sponse evolved as a way to protect the youngster from put- clearly than the work of William Savage (1921: 83), who ting pathogenic substances in his or her mouth (Rottman nearly a century ago conducted a series of experiments 2014). It is also important to keep in mind that the sharp in which he fed putrid meat to kittens. Though his results upswing in botulism cases in the arctic since the 1970s and were not entirely concordant, Savage concluded that ‘a 1980s is largely an outcome, not of traditional methods of study of the evidence...singularly fails to bring forward any rotting foods in pits, bogs, lakes, and seal pokes, but of the evidence associating the consumption of food in a state of introduction by Euroamericans of supposedly more ‘hy- incipient putrefaction with illness in those who consume gienic’ means of fermenting these foods using sealed glass it.’ bottles and plastic bags placed in more ‘sanitary’ (and often Concerning the massive outbreaks of botulism in water above-ground) locales. Bottom line: for hunters and gather- birds cited by Reed and Rocke (1992), there is a growing ers living unacculturated lifestyles, contamination of rot- body of literature implicating pollution and eutrophication ted meat and fish by pathogenic bacteria seems not to have of water bodies as likely sources of the problem, with toxic posed much of a health hazard, and for children raised in algal blooms, nitrate-rich runoff from surrounding -farm the traditional foodways of their culture, the smell would lands, contamination by sewage and garbage, and use of have been largely if not entirely irrelevant. As a 19th-centu- effluent from wastewater treatment plants to re-establish ry Inuit informant put it: ‘we don’t eat the smell’ (Fienup- wetlands emerging as prime suspects (Anza et al. 2014; Riordan 1988: 11). Murphy et al. 2000). It is a mistake to jump from these al- There is one thing that has become strikingly clear in tered and often polluted circumstances to the universal attempting to pull together the many threads that form generalization that rotten meat, at all times and in all plac- 58 • PaleoAnthropology 2017 es, is inherently dangerous. natives’ habit, not just of touching their own feces, but of But this is not to deny that botulism can at times be a systematically collecting them in order to retrieve and con- very serious problem. Hence, what we need is a better un- sume the abundant tiny seeds that had passed undigested derstanding of the specific constellation of circumstances in through their system after ingesting large quantities of pi- which meat on a decaying carcass remains safe to eat (set- tahaya (cactus) fruit: ting aside cultural preferences of taste and smell), versus the conditions in which such meat is likely to become laced “...I mentioned that the pitahayas contain a great many with potentially deadly pathogens. The latter is clearly not small seeds, resembling grains of powder, which for rea- an inevitable outcome. Moreover, judging from ethnohis- sons unknown to me are not consumed in the stomach toric and ethnographic sources, contamination by patho- but passed in an undigested state. In order to use these small grains, the Indians collect all excrement during gens is not even the inevitable outcome of decomposition the season of the pitahayas, pick out these seeds from it, in warmer climes. This is shown by reports of hunter-gath- roast, grind, and eat them with much joking. This proce- erers and small-scale subsistence farmers in many parts dure is called by the Spaniards the after or second har- of sub-Saharan Africa consuming very ‘ripe’ meat, as for vest! Whether all this happens because of want, voracity, example the putrid meat and blubber retrieved by Bush- or out of love for the pitahayas, I leave undecided. All three surmises are plausible and any one of them might men (San) from beached whale carcasses along the Namib- cause them to indulge in such filthiness. It was difficult ian and South African coast, or the rotten meat scavenged for me, indeed, to give credit to such a report until I had by Hadza from lion kills in Tanzania. Thus, there is a real repeatedly witnessed this procedure.” (Baegert 1952: 68; need for further research to help identify the specific con- for the original German text, see Baegert 1773: 119–120) stellation of temperature, humidity, air circulation, expo- sure, and condition of the carcass, as well as the health and Homer Aschmann (1959: 77) provides additional de- physical condition of the animals themselves before they tails about the ‘second harvest’ in Baja California, noting died, that together would foster the proliferation of Clos- that other Jesuits, not just Baegert, had observed—appar- tridium botulinum spores in putrefying carcasses. ently with equal disgust—this native practice, and that at In any case, our revulsion at the sight and smell of rot- least one unsuspecting early missionary to the region— ten meat, and our steadfast belief that such meat is haz- Father Francesco María Piccolo—had inadvertently eaten ardous, are very likely the offspring of our own Eurocen- seeds obtained in this manner. tric cultural biases. These biases are reinforced by our lack Prehistoric pits filled with human feces (coprolites) of first-hand experience as subsistence hunters, and are have been found in a number of dry caves in the Great passed on from generation to generation as a form of inher- Basin of the western United States. David Thomas (1985: ited wisdom, kept alive, despite our training as scientists, 380–381) discusses these so-called ‘latrines’ at length, not- by our failure to look beyond cultures and contexts that fit ing that in at least some cases such deliberate fecal accumu- comfortably within our own familiar value systems. It is lations occur together with caches of equipment that had a cultural bias, whether applied to human foodways or to clearly been stored in the caves in anticipation of future use. the dietary habits of vultures, a bias that would be easier to To Thomas, the placement of the latrines side-by-side with recognize and address if there were more effective cross- other cached items suggests that the feces had also been disciplinary communication. stored there, presumably as food reserves for future use— I am definitely not suggesting that humans are- lack in short, additional examples of Baegert’s ‘second harvest.’ ing in any sort of universal capacity to react to unpleasant Arctic groups provide additional insights into forager elicitors with a response that psychologists would classify attitudes toward excrement, and show no evidence, at least as disgust. There certainly seems to be no shortage of litera- in these contexts, that feces necessarily elicited feelings of ture suggesting that they do. What I am questioning here is disgust, whether through direct contact or by indirect con- the supposed universality of the elicitors of such responses, tamination of other items or foods. even the so-called ‘core’ elicitors (Rozin et al. 1999: 433), not the capacity itself. As we have already discussed at “The use of ptarmigan droppings appears to be limited length, the sight and smell of putrid, maggoty meat and to a few groups of Eskimos. According to Mathiassen..., ‘Ptarmigan excrement is chewed together with walrus fish are clearly not universally viewed as disgusting. But meat into a porridgy mass which is stirred up in blub- other ‘core’ disgust elicitors which psychologists often treat ber.’ Similarly, the Netsilik Eskimos are said by Birket- as though they were universal—the sight, touch, and smell Smith...to have used ‘ptarmigan excrement mixed with of feces and urine being prime examples—are just as cul- blubber and chewed meat’.” (Eidlitz 1969: 88) turally contingent as putrid meat, as a perusal of the cross- “Certain remarks and deeds of Pannigabluk’s today cultural ethnohistoric literature quickly shows. prompt me to enter certain things about Eskimo cleanli- Looking first at feces, what immediately comes to mind ness, etc. Pan. [Pannigabluk] will clean dog excrement are the classic observations of Johann Jakob Baegert, a Jesu- off a sole of a pair of boots with her ulu [knife], wipe it it priest who served for 17 years (1751–1768) as a mission- casually with a rag that may have had as bad uses a doz- ary among the hunter-gatherers of Baja California. I think en times before, and then proceed to eat with the ulu or cut up with it food for cooking....” (Stefansson 1914: 226) it fair to say that Baegert was genuinely disgusted by the Putrid Meat and Fish in the Paleolithic • 59 The Hadza of Tanzania provide yet another example of disgust response in the country’s rural inhabitants: humans freely handling feces with no evidence whatsoever that seeing, smelling, or touching them elicited any sort of “For crops in a vigorous growing state no kind of ma- disgust response: nure is so eagerly sought after as night soil; and every traveller in China has remarked the large cisterns or earthen tubs which are placed in the most conspicuous “Baobab seed is also a good protein source with ad- and convenient situation for the reception of this kind of equate levels of five out of eight essential amino acids.... manure. What would be considered an intolerable nui- The Hadza chew young seeds; but when mature, the sance in every civilised town in Europe, is here looked seeds are cracked individually with a stone or pounded upon by all classes, rich and poor, with the utmost com- into a coarse flour.... Baboons, which have teeth well- placency; and I am convinced that nothing would aston- shaped for seed cracking...cannot break the mature ish a Chinaman more, than hearing any one complain of seeds and pass them unbroken. Hadza women collect the stench which is continually rising from these manure baobab seeds from baboon dung piles, wash them, and tanks.... In England it is generally supposed that the Chi- prepare them in the normal manner....” (Schoeninger et nese carry the night soil and urine to these tanks, and al. 2001: 182) leave it there to undergo fermentation, before they apply it to the land. This, however, is not the case; at least, not generally. In the fertile agricultural districts in the north, Throughout much of Southwest and South Asia, ma- I have observed that the greater part of this stimulant is nure from cattle, sheep, and other livestock is systemati- used in a fresh state, being of course sufficiently diluted cally gathered, kneaded into dung cakes, dried, and stored with water before it is applied to the crops.” (Fortune in and around the house where it serves as an important 1847: 314–315) fuel for cooking and warmth, a component of household architecture, and at times may even be ingested in some Another favorite in the list of supposed ‘core’ universal form for medicinal purposes. disgust elicitors—urine—is also effectively demolished by the cross-cultural ethnographic record and, as in the case of “Only the dung of the zebu cow was used to plaster the putrid meat, the damning evidence again comes from the stove and the kitchen area.... For fuel, dung was molded Inuit. Urine was their principal ‘soap’! into relatively flat round cakes which were dried in the sun. Each family had a special place where dung cakes were made and stored.... The women of a family...daily “Urine...is collected from the containers in the men’s carried dung dropped by the family cattle to this place. house only (since that of women is believed to be un- Families who owned no cattle collected dung from the clean), to be stored in tubs for at least two days before us- village lanes and the grazing area. Traditionally, such ing. Women...first bathe in urine, followed by a rinsing dung was available to everyone and it was collected by in either salt or fresh water. Both sexes frequently wash most families. One important duty of a young daughter hands and faces in urine, and rinse with water; for urine, was to go early every morning through the village lanes coming into contact with the body oils, acts as soap in to mark dung that fell from cattle when they were driven removing grease and other impurities. The men, when to the pond or to the grazing area and later to collect it... about to take a sweat-bath...gather in the men’s house. One morning we watched a woman from an 11-person There the floor boards are removed and a roaring fire family making dung cakes.... She mixed the dung with built in the pit.... The participants, soon drenched with small pieces of mustard stalks, kneaded it, and formed it perspiration, bathe themselves with urine from the cen- into cakes of two sizes which she spread on the ground tral pot....” (Curtis 1930: 43) to dry. In the course of the morning, she made about 24 large cakes and 103 small ones.” (Freed and Freed 1978: 80–81) So, it would seem from the studies by Rozin et al. (2008), Rottman (2014) and others, together with the comparative “In Iran manure is an especially valued and carefully insights drawn from the ethnographic literature, that the treated commodity. Rural and urban communities use it search for universal disgust elicitors may be doomed from to fertilize the soil, produce energy (burning), eradicate the outset, because the entire endeavor is based upon what pests and plant diseases, make bricks and plaster walls. In some cases it is also used to treat human illness.... For is likely to be a false assumption, namely that the disgust example, the dung of newly born foals mixed with the response is a product of natural selection which serves to milk of lactating donkeys is used in some villages to treat protect infants from putting bad things in their mouth. As whooping cough.... Iranian villagers...utilize animal ma- Liberman and colleagues (2016: 9480) put it: ‘...human in- nure and bird droppings as a source of energy. In some fants are surprisingly inept at categorizing and selecting rural areas animal manure is still used to generate heat and women believe that the best fire for baking bread is appropriate foods.’ Instead, these authors propose a very one made from animal droppings because it produces different type of explanatory framework for the way infants more uniformly baked and thoroughly toasted bread.” come to distinguish those foods that are acceptable and ap- (Ardakani and Emadi 2004: 13) propriate (hence ‘good to eat’) from those that are inappro- priate, perhaps even disgusting (hence ‘bad to eat’). In their As a final example, the Chinese have a long history of view such distinctions derive, not from intrinsic health-re- using human feces (‘night soil’) as manure in their agricul- lated or nutritional properties of the foods themselves, but tural fields. Not surprisingly, there is no hint that either the from prosocial cues the infants receive from their caregivers sight or smell of night soil elicited anything resembling a and from others in their close social network who engage 60 • PaleoAnthropology 2017 positively with each other and, importantly, who speak the bachensis), and a modest lithic assemblage consisting mostly same language. In other words, from this perspective elici- of flakes and debitage, and small numbers of formal tools tors of the disgust response are just part of a broad suite of such as scrapers. Handaxes and Levallois technique are culturally contingent markers that serve to identify socially noteworthy for their absence. Most assign the site to the late meaningful groups of people who share a common set of Lower Paleolithic, although it could easily be considered an values and beliefs, while simultaneously creating boundar- early Middle Paleolithic site. As to the hominin responsible, ies that differentiate such groups from culturally more dis- opinions differ, some suggesting the occupants belonged to tant ‘others’ (for a surprisingly early exposition of the cul- the taxon Homo heidelbergensis, others seeing Schoeningen turally relative nature of people’s perceptions of what does as an early Neanderthal manifestation (Conard et al. 2015; or does not ‘stink,’ see Smollett 1785: 13–14). This culturally Jöris and Baales 2003; Richter and Krbetschek 2015; Schoch nuanced perspective would seem to fit ethnographic real- et al. 2015; Serangeli et al. 2015; Urban and Bigga 2015; van ity far better than traditional pathogen-based explanations. Kolfschoten 2014; van Kolfschoten et al. 2012). There is general agreement that the primary focus of SCHOENINGEN: LATE MIDDLE activities at Schö 13 II-4 was the killing, butchering, and PLEISTOCENE POND STORAGE? processing of horses, and that the site’s location right on the Let us turn now to the most speculative part of this already margin of a shallow lake would not have been well suited quite speculative endeavor. Did hunter-gatherers already as a primary camping spot. Moreover, earlier claims for in the Paleolithic also make use of fermented or more thor- hearths at the site have been rejected, further supporting oughly rotted meat? My answer to this question is a very the idea that Schö 13 II-4 was a functionally specific hunt- tentative ‘maybe.’ There are a number of potential candi- ing-butchering locale rather than a longer-term campsite. dates in the literature, all cases in which foragers may have There is less agreement about how the horses were cached partly butchered carcasses under water in a bog, killed. Until recently it was believed that the animals had lake, or river. The earliest of these, and the one which I will been driven en masse into the lake or a muddy or swampy discuss in some detail below, is the late Middle Pleistocene area along its borders (Thieme 2005: 130; Voormolen 2008). German site of Schoeningen (Schöningen). Two other note- However, more recent evidence—stable isotopes, dental worthy candidates, also in Germany but much younger wear patterns, and age-sex data—all converge to suggest than Schoeningen, are the very late Upper Paleolithic Ham- that the accumulation of horse remains is more likely the burgian and Ahrensburgian reindeer kill sites of Meiendorf product of multiple events involving different herds and and Stellmoor (Rust 1937, 1943; see also Price et al. 2017). At perhaps taking place at somewhat different times of year both of these localities, but perhaps most dramatically seen (Conard et al. 2015; Julien et al. 2015; Rivals et al. 2015). in the Ahrensburgian layers at Stellmoor, large numbers of None of this evidence by itself necessarily points to reindeer carcasses, some complete or nearly so, many as pond storage. Countless Paleolithic sites occur in lake partly butchered units, were placed in the water, some ap- shore settings, so finding a similar situation at Schoeningen parently deliberately anchored to the bottom with rocks. at first glance would not seem the least bit unusual. The Not surprisingly, controversy swirls around the interpreta- surprise came from the detailed studies of the sediments tion of these two sites, with some authors favoring delib- and associated microfossils which encased the bones, in erate underwater storage of reindeer meat (see Chatterton combination with trace evidence found on the surfaces of 2005: 68 and especially Grøn 2005: 21); others championing the bones themselves. According to Stahlschmidt and col- alternative though not necessarily mutually exclusive ex- leagues (2015: 83), ‘the micromorphological, FTIR, and or- planations, such as kills that were simply abandoned be- ganic petrology results of the investigated profiles indicate cause they were not needed or because the animals were in that all three sedimentary layers associated with archaeo- poor condition, or carcasses that were placed in the water logical remains...formed under permanent water cover- as ritual offerings, or discarded waste from shore-based age....’ These authors go on to conclude that ‘the sediments butchery activities (e.g., Bokelmann 1979, 1991; Bratlund directly associated with the archaeological finds...show no 1996; Grønnow 1987; Pohlhausen 1953; Rust 1937, 1943). signs of ancient pedogenesis or desiccation, and were de- The site of Schoeningen, located about 100km (62mi) posited subaqueously’ (Stahlschmidt et al. 2015: 87). east of Hanover, Germany, is one of the most interesting Of course, there are other ways besides pond storage and important Paleolithic sites in western Europe. Consist- that bones and lithics can end up commingled in lake bot- ing of numerous separate localities exposed by open-cast tom sediments. One could kill and butcher the horses di- lignite mining, Schoeningen is perhaps best known for the rectly on the surface of the frozen lake. Any debris left on so-called ‘Horse Butchery Site’ or ‘Spear Horizon,’ desig- the ice would obviously end up on the bottom when the nated officially as Schö 13 II-4. This locality, dated around ice melted. Or one could conduct all of the butchering and 310 ky and attributed to the latter or deteriorating stages of processing activities on shore and simply toss the stones the late Middle Pleistocene Reinsdorf Interglacial (MIS 9), and bones into the lake. And, of course, one can envision has so far produced nine wooden-tipped spears and one a much more complex mix of activities in which some car- lance, as well as numerous other miscellaneous wooden casses were processed on shore, others on the ice, after items, many thousands of animal bones, the majority repre- which some parts of the kill were then stored in the pond senting some 45–50 very large (~550kg) horses (Equus mos- while others were taken somewhere else. Then, at some Putrid Meat and Fish in the Paleolithic • 61 point later in the year, hunters returned to the lake and re- The fermentation process also generates important B- trieved some of the meat, perhaps processing it further on vitamins and preserves precious vitamin C that would be the ice or on the nearby shore, and concluded by disposing degraded or lost if the meat were cooked. In addition to of their trash either on shore or in the lake—in short, a com- sparing fuel and reducing metabolic costs, preserving vita- plex palimpsest of inter-related activities. min C may be one of the key reasons why fermentation and None of this proves that pre-Neanderthals or Neander- putrefaction rather than cooking is so important to foragers thals were storing meat in the lake at Schoeningen. But I subsisting on heavily meat- or fish-based diets. So, if Eur- think there is enough evidence, both from the ethnohistoric asian Neanderthals were in fact ‘top predators,’ as seems to record and from Schoeningen itself, to suggest that pond be the current consensus among Paleolithic archaeologists, storage is a plausible hypothesis, one that should be con- they likely faced the same vitamin C constraint as modern sidered along with others that are currently on the table northern foragers do, making it very likely that they too for discussion (e.g., shore-based butchery with trash dis- had to depend on both raw and fermented or rotted meat. posal in the lake; butchery and trash disposal on the fro- If fermented and rotted foods did in fact constitute a zen surface of the lake). Needless-to-say, because of the major part of Neanderthal diet for the reasons just enumer- ever-present problem of equifinality and other confound- ated, that might help to explain the curious on-again, off- ing sources of uncertainty and error, there is no way we again evidence for fire in the European Middle Paleolithic. can ever ‘prove’ which of these alternative hypotheses is In fact, variation across time and space in the frequency of the correct one. The ‘real answer’—the ‘truth’—may well hearths, ash deposits, and charred bones, particularly dur- be something of which nobody has yet thought. So, rather ing colder climatic episodes, may help us track the chang- than steadfastly championing one or another favored ex- ing emphasis on cooked versus raw and fermented foods in planation, what we need to do instead is to work with mul- Middle and Late Pleistocene foodways. tiple competing hypotheses and with equal vigor attempt It is perhaps important to note in this context that when to falsify all of them (Platt 1964). In that spirit, I suggest that traditional hunting and gathering peoples in the high arctic pond storage should be added to the list of plausible sce- actually took the time to cook their meat (and fish), they narios as a serious contender. generally did so, not by roasting, but by very lightly and rapidly blanching or boiling it (e.g., Harry and Frink 2009: ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 334). One reason for this preference was fuel economy; an- AND CONCLUSIONS other, as already noted, preservation of vitamin C (Bender As I said at the outset, this is a speculative endeavor. At this 1979). Hans Saabye and Georg Fries (1818: 254), comment- point we do not know whether fermented and rotted foods ing more than two and a quarter centuries ago on the typi- played any role whatsoever in the diets and foodways of cal manner of cooking by Greenland Inuit, stated quite em- Eurasian foragers at any stage during the Paleolithic. We phatically that ‘they boil meat and fish an equal time, so presently lack both the methods and the middle range the- that when the former is hardly more than half done, the lat- ory needed to make such practices ‘visible’ in the distant ter fall to pieces. They do not know how to roast any thing.’ past. But I hope I have been able to convince my readers A century later Herbert Aldrich (1889:180), commenting that such foods very likely did play a role, perhaps a very upon the way Alaskan Inuit prepared food, put it simply: important one, and finding out is essential because an an- ‘the only way of cooking meat is boiling.’ Warburton Pike swer in the affirmative would mean that a number of our (1892: 51-52) came to much the same conclusion: ‘the gen- ideas and interpretations of the Paleolithic record may have eral method of cooking everything in the lodge is by boil- to be rethought, some quite substantially. ing, which takes most of the flavour out of the meat, but has First and foremost, fermenting and rotting meat and the advantage of being easy and economical of firewood.’ fish are low-cost and ‘low-tech’ means of effectively ‘pre- Ernest Burch (1988: 70) in a much more recent overview of digesting’ protein and fat without having to cook them. Inuit culinary techniques again emphasized the importance This greatly reduces the energetic costs of chewing, digest- of boiling: ‘Eskimos did not dissipate the nutritional poten- ing, and assimilating them, and—unlike cooking—it can tial of their food by overcooking it. Great quantities of meat be accomplished ‘passively,’ that is, when the foragers are and fish were eaten raw, usually in either dried or frozen engaged in other activities, or for that matter while they are form. When they did cook their food they normally boiled not even present in the area. Cooking, in contrast, requires it, usually lightly, and drank the broth.’ Finally, Zona Spray near constant vigilance, both to keep from overcooking and (2002: 36) provides helpful insight into what ‘lightly’ actu- ruining the meal, and to keep the fire alive and burning at ally means in the context of Inuit boiling: the right temperature. Moreover, fermentation is ideally suited for preserving “...the term ‘boil’ might be a misnomer. Not once did I and storing fatty meat and fish in climates plagued by in- see a bubbling pot. Rather, the liquid gently shimmered at a perfect poaching temperature. With a limited heat cessant rain, overcast skies, fog, or dampness, conditions source, if a pot did boil, it was only for a short time.... which can make it exceedingly difficult to dry foods quick- Sometimes only a tiny amount of water was needed to ly enough to prevent spoilage (autoxidation or rancidity) braise or steam. But no matter the exact cooking method, without having to use up scarce fuel to speed up the pro- the descriptive term was always ‘boiled.’” cess. 62 • PaleoAnthropology 2017 Though speculative, it is quite likely that Neanderthals particularly ∂15N values. When foragers consume meat or also boiled some of their food, for the same reasons that fish that has been rotted for weeks or months, they are not their ethnohistoric counterparts did, and despite the con- just eating protein, they are eating millions upon millions spicuous absence of either fire-proof containers or the tell- of bacteria, both anaerobic and aerobic, plus a complex tale signs of stone-boiling. One can readily boil water in a ‘soup’ composed of endogenous and exogenous enzymes perishable hide, paunch, or birch bark container, placing and metabolites generated during the progressive decom- it directly on the hot coals or suspended immediately over position of the food. the flames, without fear that the vessel will be consumed in Of all the complex by-products and end-products of the process. Despite their flammable nature when empty, putrefaction, perhaps the ones of most relevance to stable such containers will not ignite, even when heated with a isotope studies are the volatile compounds that are gen- Bunsen burner or blowtorch, so long as they remain filled erated along the way, and particularly three nitrogenous with liquid (Speth 2015). In fact, direct boiling in this man- gases—ammonia, cadaverine, and putrescine (Abdel-Aziz ner is faster, cleaner, and much more fuel efficient than et al. 2016; Buňková et al. 2016; Carter and Tibbett 2008: stone-boiling. Thus, if Neanderthals—for reasons of fuel 31; Cobaugh 2013; Donaldson and Lamont 2013; Janaway economy and preservation of vitamin C—did prepare some et al. 2009: 316, 318; Komitopoulou 2012; Metcalf et al. 2016: portion of their meat by light, rapid boiling rather than by 161; Min et al. 2007; Paczkowski and Schütz 2011; Pessione roasting, such behavior might well contribute to a number and Cirrincione 2016; Ruiz-Capillas and Jiménez-Colmen- of ‘troublesome’ taphonomic problems for the Paleolithic ero 2004; Sander et al. 1996; Thorn and Greenman 2012: 3). archaeologist. For example, judging from the ethnohistoric These volatiles, which result from the breakdown of pro- literature many of the hearths used for this kind of cooking teins and amino acids, are important contributors to the are likely to have been small and very ephemeral, the fuel characteristic bloating and foul smell that typically accom- at times simply gleaned from locally available herbaceous panies the decay of animal matter (Dent et al. 2004). vegetation and even mosses, and the incidence of burning The extent to which these gases are formed depends on on bones, flint chips, and other objects minimal or non-exis- a host of factors, among which are: the amount of time that tent. In short, if Paleolithic foragers prepared meat by rap- has elapsed since death (the postmortem interval or PMI); idly boiling it, the result would be a further amplification of available moisture; ambient temperature; whether the car- the ‘on again, off again’ nature of the evidence for Middle cass was buried, left on the surface, or immersed in water; Paleolithic fire use. the properties of the surrounding soil; characteristics of the Deliberately fermenting or rotting meat and fish also animal itself, including species, body size, health at the time provides a safe and effective ‘low-tech’ way to store foods of death, how much body fat was present, whether or not over periods of months, even during the warmer summer the animal was gutted, dismembered, and skinned before months. By simply placing fermenting and rotting animal putrefaction; and how often the meat cache was accessed by foods in a shallow pit, or under a pile of rocks, or in a bog, the hunters over the course of its use-life. Given this array or on the bottom of a pond, foragers can create valuable of potentially confounding factors, it is very hard, without food caches at strategic points on the landscape. Judging a great deal of baseline experimental work, to predict the from the literature, these cache points are often either just quantity of nitrogenous gases that would have been gener- outside the camp or settlement, along major routes, or close ated and subsequently lost to the surrounding air, water, or to where a given resource is procured (e.g., fishing spots, soil. But this issue is interesting and potentially important caribou/reindeer intercept points, etc.). Thus, the obvi- because the production of these volatiles, especially am- ous scarcity of pits directly within Middle Paleolithic sites monia, may have left the putrefied food cache enriched in would not rule out the possibility that Neanderthals none- 15N (I am grateful to Margaret Schoeninger for pointing out theless routinely cached meat in pits, since such features this likely source of enrichment, personal communication, are not likely to be located where most of our excavations April 2017). tend to be focused. In any case, if Middle and Upper Paleo- There seem to be very few studies that have explicitly lithic foragers were routinely rotting meat and fish in cach- looked at the impact of putrefaction on stable isotope val- es, regardless of whether these caches were in pits, bogs, or ues, and the ones that I have come across deal solely with ponds, it would be misleading to characterize their cultural aquatic resources and experimental designs that are not systems as ones that lacked storage. Quite the contrary, necessarily ideal analogs for deliberate human meat cach- such dispersed forms of food caching may well have been a ing. Nevertheless, their results do show that putrefaction vital part of their adaptations, and a key factor in their de- of meat over sufficient lengths of time and under appropri- cisions about when and where to move and the route they ate ambient temperature conditions can elevate 15N values should take in order to get to their final destination while quite substantially (see, for example, Wheeler et al. 2014: minimizing the specter of starvation en route. We just have 116 for an example involving salmonid fish decompos- not figured out ways to ‘see’ these caches yet. ing in a terrestrial setting; see also Burrows et al. 2014 and As I became increasingly aware of the likely impor- Yurkowski et al. 2017). Whether the extent of such enrich- tance of fermented and rotted foods in the diets of northern ment would have been sufficient to elevate 15N values to peoples, I began to wonder whether such practices might levels comparable to what we see in European Neander- have an impact on the results of stable isotope analyses, thals (Bocherens 2011; Wißing et al. 2016) is, of course, un- Putrid Meat and Fish in the Paleolithic • 63 known, but it would seem to be a possibility well worth noting in this context that rotted fish heads (stinkfish, looking at more closely. stinkhead, or stinky head) were, hands-down, among the There are other components of traditional arctic diet all-time favorite foods of peoples across the entire North that might also lead to 15N enrichment. Eating the larvae of American arctic, so fish consumption in analogous - envi warble flies found beneath the skin of caribou and reindeer, ronments during the Paleolithic may indeed be difficult to a widespread practice among northern foragers, might be detect! one such mechanism, as would consuming the maggots Continuing with the taphonomic theme, how attrac- that almost invariably infested their putrefied meat and tive are bones of fermented and rotted animals—with or fish (Anderson and Nilssen 1996; Bennett and Hobson 2009; without marrow—to carnivores like hyenas? And how Hocking et al. 2009; Nilssen 1997; I am grateful to Melanie long does that attraction persist? What consequences might Beasley for drawing my attention to this possibility, per- fermentation have on the number and location of carnivore sonal communication, March 2017). As far as the maggots gnaw marks, punctures, and other sorts of damage? are concerned, the degree of enrichment would again de- Finally, ungulate bones are often thought to have been pend on many factors, including whether the rotted food used as fuel during the Eurasian Middle and Upper Pa- was terrestrial or aquatic in origin, marine or freshwater, leolithic. Are the combustion properties of fermented and the degree to which the food was putrefied, and, of course, unfermented bones comparable, or does fermentation alter on how substantial a contribution the maggots made to the a bone’s utility as a fuel? What effect might fermentation overall diet of the foragers. have on the value of an epiphysis for subsequent grease- Turning now to taphonomy, if Paleolithic peoples rendering? made regular use of fermented and rotted foods, this One could go on enumerating other ways in which reli- would almost certainly add to the complexity of our as- ance on fermented and rotted meat and fish might impact sessments. For example, by reducing the extent to which the way we interpret the Paleolithic record. I hope what I Paleolithic foragers relied on any sort of cooking, the inci- have presented here is at least sufficient to show that these dence of burning will almost certainly be affected, as will types of foods may have been of great importance to for- the presence of hearths, ash lenses, scattered charcoal, and agers in the past. Deliberate fermentation and putrefaction thermally ‘popped’ or potlidded flints. Likewise, since were not just last resort strategies to stave off starvation fermentation and rotting greatly soften meat by breaking when all other means failed, nor were they a mere culi- down the component proteins, one can often simply pull nary curiosity. Instead, fermenting and rotting meat and chunks of meat from the bones with little or no need for a fish may well have been vital to the survival and success knife. This should lead to a significant reduction in fillet- of Paleolithic ‘top predators’ as they penetrated the colder ing marks. Joints also become easier to separate and can climes of Pleistocene Eurasia. We now need to pool our col- often be pulled apart with little or no cutting. Could these lective efforts, expertise, and imagination in order to find consequences of putrefaction perhaps also blur some of the ways to evaluate these speculations and, in the process, cutmark criteria we use to distinguish early carcass access move toward a more complete and realistic understanding and hunting from later access and scavenging? of the lifeways and adaptations of these stone age pioneers Interestingly, modern arctic foragers sometimes freeze of the colder climes. the rotted product before they eat it. This seems to be particularly common with rotted fish heads and caribou or ACKNOWLEDGMENTS reindeer stomach contents. Freezing of course makes the A brief version of these ideas was first presented in March meat more difficult to remove from the bones and may well 2016 at a conference held at Leiden University entitled ‘Diet lead to a more haphazard pattern of cutmarks, much like in the Past—Food for Discussion,’ organized by Thijs van that seen on some of the human bones from the famous Kolfschoten and his graduate students. I then presented a 19th-century Alferd [sic] Packer wintertime cannibalism similar version in September 2016 at the 4th ICAZ Taphono- case in the North American Rockies (Rautman and Fenton my Working Group meeting in Paris at the Musée National 2005), and from Middle Pleistocene Schoeningen (Starkov- d’Histoire Naturelle. This conference, entitled ‘Taphonomie ich and Conard 2015), although it would probably not ex- Quaternaire: du Général au Particulier,’ was organized by plain the haphazard pattern seen by Stiner et al. (2009) at Jean-Philippe Brugal and Christiane Denys. I am grateful to Qesem Cave in Israel. the organizers of both of these meetings for their invitation Rotted fish heads were often frozen before being eaten to participate and, by so doing, for providing me with the and then allowed to thaw just enough so that they took on needed ‘nudge’ to begin putting these ideas down on (vir- the texture of a firm ice cream cone (Stefansson 1960: 36). tual) paper. Along the way, several people have generously They were then eaten, bones and all. Since the spine of the contributed valuable ideas and suggestions about ways to fish was often removed and discarded at or near where the improve and expand the arguments. Among these are Mel- fish was caught, not at camp, the only direct evidence at a anie Beasley, Briana Doering, Maria Pontes Ferreira, Daniel residential site that fish were part of the diet—the heads— Fisher, Pascal Gagneux, John Kingston, Harriet Kuhnlein, were first reduced to the consistency of mush by fermenta- Julia Lee-Thorp, Mariana Mondini, Eugène Morin, Mar- tion and then eaten in their entirety, leaving virtually no garet Schoeninger, and Richard Wrangham. Some of these evidence behind for the archaeologist to find. It is worth ideas took shape while attending various CARTA symposia 64 • PaleoAnthropology 2017 at UCSD, and especially through informal discussions with Anderson, D.B., Anderson, W.W., Bane, R., Nelson, R.K., a number of the participants following the formal presenta- and Towarak, N.S. 1998. Kuuvanmiut Subsistence: Tra- tions. My thanks also to an anonymous reviewer and to Er- ditional Eskimo Life in the Latter Twentieth Century. Na- ella Hovers, the editor of PaleoAnthropology, for providing tional Park Service, Kotzebue, AK. valuable suggestions to help clarify some of the arguments Anderson, J.R. and Nilssen, A.C. 1996. Trapping oestrid and streamline others. I clearly owe a special debt of grati- parasites of reindeer: the relative age, fat body content tude to my spouse, Lisa Young, who put up each morning and gonotrophic conditions of Cephenemyia trompe and at breakfast with my excited ramblings about the ‘wonders’ Hypoderma tarandi females caught in baited traps. Medi- of stinkhead, maggots, and other savory mealtime delights. cal and Veterinary Entomology 10, 347–353. She was an amazing trooper through it all, and along the Anderson, R.M. 1918. Eskimo food—how it tastes to a way came up with some great ideas that have added a lot white man. Ottawa Naturalist 32, 59–65. to the final paper. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not Anza, I., Vidal, D., Laguna, C., Díaz-Sánchez, S., Sánchez, also tip my hat to my daughter’s four-legged companion, S., Chicote, Á., Florín, M., and Mateo, R. 2014. Eutro- Tyrion (a.k.a. Mr. T), a (very) distant cousin of the Inuit sled phication and bacterial pathogens as risk factors for dogs to which I draw attention in this paper. My interest in avian botulism outbreaks in wetlands receiving efflu- arctic canines and their clear love for things smelly and rot- ents from urban wastewater treatment plants. Applied ten was first brought to my attention, not by the accounts and Environmental Microbiology 80, 4251–4259. of 19th-century arctic explorers, but by none other than Mr. Ardakani, M.A. and Emadi, M.H. 2004. Managing livestock T. On walks in the countryside he would wander off ex- by-products in Iran. Leisa Magazine 20, 13. ploring and then suddenly reappear and, with a disturb- Aschmann, H. 1959. The Central Desert of Baja California: ingly fixed gaze, one eye blue, the other brown, his head Demography and Ecology. University of California Press, cocked, he would proudly display a thoroughly putrid fish Berkeley and Los Angeles. dangling out of his mouth, or a totally flat, equally rotten Audubon, J.J. 1897. The Missouri River journals, 1843. In: and foul-smelling road-killed squirrel protruding like stiff Audubon, M.R. (ed.), Audubon and His Journals, with cardboard from his firmly clenched jaws, and always with Zoölogical and Other Notes by Elliott Coues, Vol. 1. Charles an unmistakable air of defiance that said ‘it’s mine, it’s deli- Scribner’s Sons, New York, pp. 496–497. cious, and I’m going to keep it; catch me if you can!’ If my Axelsson, L. 2004. Lactic acid bacteria: classification and daughter was not careful on such outings, such olfactory physiology. In: Salminen, S., von Wright, A., and Ou- delights might well end up carefully cached, not in a pond, wehand, A. 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